Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2011/12

Annex 4: Where to find more information

Supplementary analysis:

This publication contains the headline poverty and income inequality statistics.

Supplementary analysis based on the FRS and HBAI datasets is published by the Scottish Government during the year at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty/CoreAnalysis.

This provides further disaggregation of the headline statistics at sub-population level: poverty in urban and rural areas, poverty in deprived areas, poverty by disability, gender, and ethnicity, poverty by household tenure, household income distributions, trends in median income, income source, savings and assets, and income inequality.

Supplementary analysis themes are based on the needs of users. If you have any suggestions for future supplementary analysis please email stephen.smith@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or phone 0131 244 7045.

Scottish Government websites:

Income and Poverty statistics website
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/incomepoverty

Scotland Performs website (for further information about the SG Solidarity Target and National Indicators)
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/scotPerforms

Uses of the data: In response to the UK Statistics Authority's (UKSA) report http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/assessment/assessment-reports/index.html the Scottish Government were required to identify and document the ways in which these statistics are used. More information on this can be found via the following link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty/income-data-sources

Scottish Government Tackling Poverty website includes information about what they Scottish Government is doing to reduce poverty and income inequality.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/tackling-poverty

Confidence limits surrounding Scotland poverty estimates:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty/Methodology#a6

High Level Summary of Statistics (Social and Welfare)
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare

For further information on all Scottish Government statistics
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/statistics/

UK Government websites:

Family Resources Survey, Department for Work and Pensions
http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/frs/

Households Below Average Income, Department for Work and Pensions (methodology and UK estimates)
http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=hbai

UK Government action on child poverty
http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/families/childpoverty

Local Authority level analysis and other geographies in Scotland

The figures presented here are from a sample survey which limits the analysis possible at smaller geographical areas. A few analyses are published for areas below Scotland level, (e.g. poverty in rural and urban areas and in deprived areas), however it is not possible to produce reliable estimates at Local Authority level from this source. Estimates of poverty in rural and urban areas and in deprived areas will be updated on the income and poverty statistics website soon after publication of this report. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty/CoreAnalysis

The Scottish Government are aware of the demand for Local Authority (LA) level poverty figures and are carrying out work to improve the quality of income information recorded by the Scottish Household Survey with the aim of producing LA level estimates. Initial estimates were published from this work in August 2010 and are classified as "data being developed" because they are undergoing quality assurance work and are published for the purpose of helping in this QA work and should not be treated as official statistics. For further detail and to comment on these data, see the Relative poverty across Scottish local authorities publication or contact the income and poverty statistics team on 0131 244 7045 or stephen.smith@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.

Academics from Heriot-Watt University have recently completed a project to develop a methodology for modelling income and poverty at local area levels in Scotland. Results are published on the Improvement Service website: http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/income-modelling-project/.

On the income and poverty website there is also a data sources and suitability page which discusses some of the main data sources available to researchers interested in income and poverty in Scotland and their strengths and weaknesses. This discusses some of the indicators which are currently available at local authority level to find out about income and poverty in Scotland.