Journal Article

In or out? Poverty dynamics among older individuals in the UK

Authors

Publication date

Oct 2017

Summary

Using the largest household panel survey Understanding Society, this paper investigates low-income dynamics among pensioner households in the UK controlling for biases due to initial conditions and non-random survey attrition. Estimation results indicate there is a correlation between initial and conditional poverty status, specifically, there is regression towards the mean. The results find no evidence of a correlation between initial poverty status, conditional poverty status and survey attrition. The findings show the importance of benefit income in determining poverty status, suggesting that a dichotomous measure such as poverty status may not suitably reflect actual pensioner living standards. Aside from benefit income, receipt of employer and occupational pension, health, education and subjective financial situation are important in determining initial and conditional poverty status. Stylised examples highlight the significant differences in the ‘poverty experience’ which arise due to differences individual and household characteristics.

Published in

Journal of Pension Economics and Finance

Volume and page numbers

16 , 509 -553

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1474747216000135

ISSN

16

Subjects

Older People, Households, Poverty, Welfare Benefits, and Income Dynamics

Links

University of Essex Research Repository - http://repository.essex.ac.uk/17853/

Notes

Open Access article; © Cambridge University Press 2016; This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.; Referenced by: Understanding Society (2018) ‘Written evidence from Understanding Society the UK Household Longitudinal Study (WSN0051) [Work and Pensions Select Committee. Welfare safety net inquiry]’. London: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Work and Pensions Select Committee.

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