ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the incidence of poverty by age in interwar London along lines suggested by Rowntree' s original study ofYork. Such a re-analysis of poverty incidence is only possible if the original social survey records are available. We use the recently computerised records from the New Survey of London Life and Labour undertaken in 1929-31, the only interwar poverty survey for which the bulk of the records survive. We investigate the link between poverty incidence by age using different poverty lines and compare the results before and after social security payments. We then examine the relationship between the age profile of poverty incidence and a small set of key household characteristics. Finally, we explore the links between age specific poverty rates and life cycle stages as defined by the composition of the household. Our results suggest that the distinctive age profile of poverty incidence can be observed in interwar London and that the factors identified by Rowntree remained important notwithstanding changes in the labour market and in social security provision. (A short non-technical summary appears in Appendix 1.)
One of the most important fmdings in Poverty, A Study of Town Life was that poverty was not necessarily a permanent condition. Some individuals who were found to be poor would later rise above the poverty line while others who were not poor at the time of the survey would later slip below the poverty line. Thus a large proportion of the working class would be touched by poverty sometime during their life course, perhaps more than once. From a single cross section Rowntree could not chart these transitions in the way that is possible with modem panel surveys, 2 but he was able to chart the changing incidence of poverty with age. His diagram (reproduced as Figure 7.1) showing phases of 'want and plenty' has fixed this idea in the minds of generations of social researchers.
