Minimum Income Standard London 2017

• 39% of Londoners have an income below MIS, significantly higher than 30%
  

in the UK as a whole. This is 3.3 million Londoners with incomes below that

needed for a minimum decent standard of living. However, this has reduced

from 2014/15 when the number was 3.5 million (41%).

• Many costs in London are similar to those in other urban areas in the UK.
  

However, higher living costs, such as housing and childcare, mean that reaching

a minimum decent standard of living in the capital costs between 16% and 53%

more than in the rest of the UK.

• The largest difference in costs is between single working-age adults living in
  

London and those outside of London. Private rents make up half of a minimum

weekly budget for single adults in Inner London and 40% in Outer London,

compared to 30% in the rest of the UK.

• Non-working Londoners face an increasing risk of having incomes well below
  

MIS. For working-age single Londoners, out-of-work benefits provide just a

quarter of the minimum needed (after rent and council tax); in the rest of the

UK, the same benefits cover just over a third of the minimum needed by single

working-age adults.

• In spite of a 4% increase in the National Living Wage (NLW) in April 2017, few
  

households are able to reach the income needed for a minimum standard

of living, working full-time on the NLW. It provides around half of the income

needed by single working-age Londoners, but over three-quarters of the income

needed to live in the rest of the UK.

• Londoners need to earn between 42% and 68% more than households outside
  

of the capital in order to reach MIS. This is even higher if families with children

rent in the private rented sector.

• Pensioner couples in receipt of pension credit receive nearly enough to reach
  

MIS in the UK outside London and in Outer London. However, in Inner London

pensioner couples fall 21% short of meeting these minimum needs.

• Children are most likely to be below the MIS threshold, with 52% below this
  

threshold in 2015/16, well above the 44% of children below MIS in the UK as a

whole. 1 million children live below MIS in London.

• While the proportion of working-age adults below MIS in London has fallen
  

between 2010/11 and 2015/16, the number remains the same at around 2

million. The proportion of pensioners below this level has increased from 23% to

nearly a third over the same period, numbering around 300,000.

• In London in 2015/16, more than a third of women (38%) are living in
  

households with insufficient income, compared to 31% of men.

• Over three-quarters of all Londoners below MIS are in rented accommodation:
  

1.3 million renting privately and 1.2 million renting from a social landlord.