Topic Summaries

Distribution of poverty, wealth, and income poverty patterns

A-Level > Sociology > AQA > A Level Sociology Topic Summaries > Work, poverty, and welfare > Distribution of poverty, wealth, and income poverty patterns
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Exam overview
  • Children: 4.2 million children in relative poverty in 2022–23, with highest rates in large families.
    • Highlights long-term generational impact.
  • Family type: lone-parent families have 44% poverty rate compared to 24% for couple families.
    • Suggests family structure interacts with labour market disadvantage.
  • Ethnicity: (👤 Zilanawala et al, 2015) Pakistani and Bangladeshi households experience around 50% poverty rates compared to 18% of white households.
    • Largely linked to structural discrimination and low-paid employment.
  • Disability: families with disabled members face 31% poverty rate compared to 18% with no disabled members.
    • Costs of disability and workplace barriers reinforce inequality.
  • Work: 69% of children in poverty live in a household with at least one working adult.
    • Disproves assumption that work alone ends poverty.
  • 👤 Piketty (2013): wealth is more unequally distributed than income; the richest 10% hold 43% of wealth while the poorest 50% hold 9%.
    • Highlights persistence of inequality in capitalist economies

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