Metric permalink

Child poverty after housing costs

Official

Part of the Childhood and Social Floor domain. Proportion of children living in households below 60% of median income after housing costs, the principal measure of child poverty in the UK.

Latest data

Latest reading

Latest value
27% of children

FYE 2025

Previous value
27% of children
Direction of badnesshigher is worse

A higher reading is treated as worse for this indicator.

Score composition

Stress score

44/100

Blended from three components: (60% weight), trend (30% weight) and volatility (10% weight). Full formula on the methodology page.

Level · 60% weight

40bounds

Bounds: scored against fixed best/worst limits, used until a metric has about eight years of verified data to rank against.

Trend · 30% weight

50stable

Neutral: the latest reading matches the one before it, so no change is measured.

Volatility · 10% weight

50

Provisional: fewer than four historical readings are available, so this defaults to a mid range score rather than a measured figure.

Data confidence and provenance

Confidence and source

0.85High0.85

How much weight to put on the reading, the mean data-confidence across the component metrics (source quality, recency and completeness).

Source

Department for Work and PensionsOfficial

Children in Low Income Families

Update frequency
Annual
Reliability
high
View source series ↗

Provenance

Provider
Department for Work and Pensions
Series ID
dwp_cilif
Frequency
Annual
Accessed
16 June 2026

Known weakness

Annual publication carries a 12-month lag; the relative measure can show falling child poverty during recessions when median income also falls. A FYE2022 admin-data switch is a structural break, so year-on-year deltas across that boundary are misleading.

Notes

Verified official value from Department for Work and Pensions (dwp_cilif), accessed 2026-06-16.

Historical values

History

PeriodValueRelative
FYE 202527