Sally West - Poverty and Deprivation: Statistics in Action

Sally West describes the statistical needs of Age UK. She highlights the value of HBAI in tracking older people in poverty over time, and the importance of demonstrating the diversity in older people's living standards. She talks about the need to know the extent of take-up of benefits, and also to measure the 'poverty premium' - meaning that people on low incomes spend more on food and essential items - which currently is not covered in the statistics. She also refers to the issue of measuring poverty among disabled people, and that figures are likely to underestimate this, and also the issue of age break downs in statistics often including an age category of 55+ or 65+ which can now cover three generations.

The RSS hosted the Statistics User Forum Conference on 10 February 2015, sponsored by JRF and Resolution Foundation.