The report details 230,000 children are currently estimated to experience material deprivation. Other key findings include:
- After a decade of uninterrupted growth, inflation has left average disposable income lower than it was two years earlier across the population as a whole. Post-tax and transfer incomes adjusted (equivalised) for household size have fallen in real terms at both the mean and median: by 2.2% and 5.4% respectively between 2021 and 2022, leaving average household disposable income lower than it was in 2020.
- Those aged 65+ are a notable exception to this decline in average disposable incomes. While average post-tax and transfer incomes fell in real terms by around 3% for those aged under 65, they grew by 3% for those aged 65+. Adjusted for both household size and housing costs, average disposable incomes are now higher for those aged above than below 65.
- When housing costs are accounted for, rates of child poverty have increased in recent years. Although rates of child poverty have fallen slightly on a before housing costs basis, they have increased from 20% in 2020 to 22% in 2023 on an after housing costs basis.
- Those experiencing low income or material deprivation are less engaged in civic participation. They are less likely to have been involved in formal and informal volunteering or to have taken part in any political activity in the last 12 months.
- Those who are materially deprived have significantly fewer social contacts than other adults and significantly lower levels of life satisfaction.
- The pandemic has had a damaging effect on life satisfaction, civic participation and social contact. By 2023 life satisfaction had still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels recorded in 2018. Civic participation in 2022 was half the level in 2015. Social contact was also reduced but not to the same degree.