As a result, relative poverty, measured as household incomes below 60% of median income, has been contained. Between 1996-97 and 2009-10, the proportion of individuals with household incomes below 60% of median income fell from 19.4% to 17.7% before housing costs and from 25.3% to 22.2% after housing costs. Relative child poverty fell from 26.7% to 19.7% before such costs, a reduction of over a quarter, but short of the previous government objective of halving relative child poverty by 2010 (Jin et al., The housing cost overburden rate - the percentage of the population living in households where the total housing costs (net of housing allowances) represent more than 40% of disposable income (EU housing statistics) - is one of highest in the European Union (EU), reaching nearly 41% in 2009 for tenants in the private sector, compared to an EU27 average of 25%. Recent cuts to housing benefits and the removal of indexation on actual market rents from April 2013 will increase the burden further for low-income tenants in private rental.