Summary: Chapter 13: Pension Trends, 2012 Edition

Percentage of pensioners falling below thresholds of equivalised contemporary median household income (AHC)

Great Britain/United Kingdom, Percentages

Source: Work and Pensions

Notes:

1. Pensioners are defined as individuals above state pension age and results for couples exclude partners of working age.
2. Data is for Great Britain until 1997/98 and the United Kingdom thereafter.

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The above figure shows the proportion of pensioners falling below 50, 60 and 70 per cent of equivalised contemporary median income After Housing Costs (AHC). The concepts of AHC and equivalised contemporary median income are defined within Pension Trends chapter 13 in the Definitions section.

There has been a decrease in the number of pensioners falling below equivalised income thresholds. In 1994/95, when contemporary median income for a couple with no children was £277 per week in 2010/11-equivalent money values, 40 per cent of pensioners fell below the 70 per cent threshold.

By 2010/11, when equivalised contemporary median income AHC was £359 per week, this proportion had fallen to 24 per cent. In 1994/95, 28 per cent of pensioners fell below the 60 per cent threshold; by 2010/11 this had fallen to 14 per cent. The proportion of pensioner households falling below 50 per cent of contemporary median income has varied between 8 and 13 per cent since 1994/95.

Source: Office for National Statistics

Background notes

1. Details of the policy governing the release of new data are available by visiting www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html or from the Media Relations Office email: media.relations@ons.gsi.gov.uk

   These National Statistics are produced to high professional standards and released according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

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