A Conservative councillor sparked a debate over child poverty after admitting he had never heard the term ‘relative poverty’.
Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board was discussing a report that stated that more than a quarter of Ayrshire children lived in relative poverty, with the majority coming from working households.
South Ayrshire Council’s depute leader, councillor Lee Lyons, newly appointed as the council representative on the body, then questioned exactly what ‘relative poverty’ meant.
Cllr Lyons asked: “I am interested that you used the phrase ‘relative poverty’.
“It’s not a phrase that I’ve heard and I think it is really important to use that phrase, as in Scotland, in the UK, they come back and say it’s not real poverty.
“The phrase 'relative poverty' is fascinating for me. Is this current language? Is this a phrase that is commonly used?
“We often just hear the phrase ‘living in poverty’.”
Child Health Consultant, Ruth Mellor, replied: “There are several phrases around poverty that we use.
“The Scottish Government have a number of measures – relative poverty, absolute poverty and persistent poverty and they all have specific definitions and differ in how they are calculated.
“The cost of living will less obvious on relative poverty than it would be on persistent poverty.”
She said that relative poverty related to the amount of money households have after housing costs.
Families are considered to be in relative poverty when they have less than 60 percent of the median income.
Absolute poverty refers to families who are unable to meet basic needs.
In her report Ms Mellor said that all three Ayrshire authorities’ rates of relative poverty were above the national average with North Ayrshire the second highest, East Ayrshire fourth and South Ayrshire 11th.
She added that, across Scotland, 68 percent were living in working households – approximately 160,000 children.
Around 13 per cent of children lived in a low-income family with material deprivation, i.e. unable to afford basic necessities (such as a winter coat) after housing costs (AHC) between April 2017 to March 2020)
And 25 per cent of children lived in households with marginal, low or very low food security (2019/20).
Around 16 per cent of children live in persistent poverty: i.e. lived in relative poverty for three out of the last 4 years (in 2015-2019).
In 2019/20 across Scotland, North and East Ayrshire have the second and fourth largest and South Ayrshire has the 11th highest percentage of children living in relative poverty, with 27.9 percent, 27.3 percent and 24.8 percent respectively, which are all in excess of the Scottish average.
Families across Scotland and Ayrshire can be at higher risk of poverty. It is documented that households with the following characteristics are at higher risk of poverty: lone parents; three or more children; disabled household members; minority ethnic background; a child aged under one, or a mother aged under 25.
It is recognised that families often belong to more than one of these groups.
For example among children experiencing relative poverty, 50 per cent of the children in families with three or more children also have someone who is disabled and 54 per cent of children who have a mother under the age of 25, they are also living in a lone parent family.
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