To ask the Minister for Communities (i) how many pensioners were in absolute poverty in 2020/21; and (ii) what assessment has her Department made on the number of pensioners who might be living in poverty in 2022/23.

(i) Official measures of absolute poverty are derived from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). Absolute poverty can be presented on a before and after housing costs basis.

Data collection in 2020/21 was impacted by COVID-19 restrictions resulting in a heavily reduced sample size. This has led to additional uncertainty around the estimates, particularly for smaller groups. As such, for 2020/21, only figures relating to the whole population are published.

In 2019/20 there were estimated to be 40,000 pensioners living in absolute poverty before housing costs, and 29,000 pensioners in absolute poverty after housing costs.

(ii) Official estimates of poverty for 2022/23 will be released in Spring 2024.

Further information regarding the above statistics can be found at the link below.

Northern Ireland Poverty Bulletin 2019-20 | Department for Communities (https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/publications/northern-ireland-poverty-bulletin-2019-20)