(Extracted from ‘Labour Research'¥VolL. LV No.2 This book deals with the extent of poverty in 1953<4 and 1960, As previous recognition of the survival of poverty has been confined almost entirely to the aged, this new study is particularly valuable because it extends the scope of the enquiry to the whole population, The raw materials of the authors were the Ministry of Labour Household Expenditure Survey of 1953-4 and the Family Expenditure Survey of 1960, In both samples the aged were under-represented compared with the population at large, but adjustments are made for this before the final conclusions are given, The authors are also cautious about changes between the two dates and make full allowances for the difference between figures based on expenditure returns and those based on income, Poverty is a relative term but the usual custom is to measure it by comparison with the minimum subsistence level needed to maintain a family of a certain size in health, The authors have used the N.A.B. scales as a standard which is generally accepted. There was some improvement in the real value of these scales between 1953-50, but the increase was slightly less than the increase in the real living standards of those earning, Households with less than the bare scale rate plus the actual cost of housing are deemed very poor and those with the rate but less than 40% above the rate are counted poor, The NAB disregards small savings and income, and gives additional grants to many recipients of Assistance, so that to extend the poverty range by up to 40% above the bare scale rate is logical, The 1953-4 figures showed .10,]% of all households to be poor and 2.1% very poor. As many of the households were Single person households, mainly elderly retired, the percentage of persons is somewhat smaller~7.8% and 1.2% respectively(approx. 4million and 600,000 people), In addition to the elderly retired poverty was found disproportionately often among large households containing wageearnerse 11.5% households of six or more were poor, Over $ of all persons living in poverty belonged to households headed by full-time workers, EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF HEADS OF HOUSEHOIDS WITH LOW EXPENDITURE _1953=4 Employment status households with Total in sample Poor persons
low_ expenditure ake Retired 68.4% 20.4% 49.3% Sick he 3% 2.3% 7.2% Unemployed 3.1% 1.0% 5.3% Working part-time 4.6% E 2.2% 3.6% Working full-time 19,64 The Lé 34.6% ©. One aspect of this study which has caused concern is the number of children living in low expenditure households~ in 1953-4 30% of the persons living in such households were children and 8.2% of all children in the sample were living in such households... In 1960... over 41% of the persons living in poverty belonged to households primarily dependent on earnings as the source of income, and 35% depended on pensions as the primary sourceses Changes in population structure between 1953-60 partly account for the irerease in poverty: the Sabten a of aged increased from 11.1 to 11.7, ard the number of families with/dependent children increased by 20%, with 5 children by 26% ard with 6 or more by 45%... Professors Townsend and Abel*Smith suggest that the chief lesson for social policy from their survey is the need to give more attention to the problem of poverty among children. Concern for the aged must no% be allowed to hide the fact that the aged are less than half the total mumber of persons living SR Se, fF a ee a ee RE ee ee ee Aa ee ae ee ee