Dudley Strategy for Tackling Health Inequalities 2010-15

Proportion of population claiming income supportin the round and may be seen as a proxy for social position, although it should beborne in mind that there is a small degree of autocorrelation in that levels of incomesupport form part of one component of the index. Nevertheless the trend linessuggest that the inequality gap appears to be narrowing slightly, with the proportionof claimants of income support in the 2 most deprived quintiles showing a decreasingtrend from August 2008. In the 3 least deprived quintiles, the proportion of claimantshas stayed fairly constant from February 2005 to May 2009.Figure 814%Proportion of Working Age Population of Dudley Claiming Income Support by Index ofMultiple Deprivation (IMD) 2007 National Quintile of Residence12%10%8%6%4%2%0%IMD1 (most deprived) IMD2 IMD3 IMD4 IMD5 (least deprived)Note: the steep decline in the number of claimants between November 2004 and February 2005 isdue to changes in the benefits system which resulted in some claimants having income supportreplaced by tax credits.An indication of pensioner poverty may be gained from examination of theguaranteed part of pension credit. Figure 9 shows the spatial distribution for Dudley.47