New Report: The Effects of Occupation on Poverty Among Ethnic Minority Groups

The Joseph Rontree Foundation has published a new report: The Effect of Occupation on Poverty Among Ethnic Minority Groups.

The report provides statistical analysis on how poverty and ethncity are linked and examines why ethnic minority groups in the UK are more likely to work for less than the minimum wage.

Does Money in Adulthood Affect Adult Outcomes?

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a new study "Does money in adulthood affect adult outcomes?"

There is ample evidence that adults with lower incomes tend to have worse outcomes including worse health, lower life expectancy and lower subjective wellbeing than individuals with more. But is money in adulthood itself important? Or are these relationships driven by other factors such as higher levels of education, underlying personality traits or the long-term impact of childhood circumstances?

This study reviews the evidence, focusing on research that tested whether the relationship between money and outcomes in adulthood is causal.

Child Poverty Set To Rise Says Social Mobility Commission

The UK risks becoming a "permanently divided" society unless "radical new approaches" are taken by the next government, a report suggests.

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission also claims the target to reduce child poverty by half by 2020 will not be met.

Chairman Alan Milburn said the three largest Westminster parties were being "less than frank" on the issue.

He said housing costs and youth unemployment needed to be tackled.

Mr Milburn, a former Labour minister, said the current government had "discredited existing child poverty targets and failed to put in place new ones", creating an "unholy mess".

The existing targets were put in place in 2010 by the last Labour government. Currently, a child is classed as being in relative poverty if his or her family income is less than 60% of median earnings.

According to the commission's report "absolute child poverty increased by 300,000 between 2010-11 and 2012-13" and "independent experts expect child poverty to increase significantly over the next few years". It also says that "working poverty after housing costs is rising".

New Research By CPAG Says That Families Are Struggling As Child Costs Rise

According to research by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) familes are stuggling as the costs of bringing up a child have risen to £148,000.

The report which was co-funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says costs have risen by 4% over the last year. At the same time, it claims the value of benefit payments fell in real terms.

You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here.

The full report "The Cost of a Child in 2013" is available to read here.

Free Books From PSE

The Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) website is offering 2 seminal books for FREE download:

• Poor Britain (1985) by Joanna Mack and Stewart Lansley
• Poverty in the United Kingdom (1979) by Peter Townsend

The books are available for download here: http://www.poverty.ac.uk/free-resources

Other free resources from the PSE include:

• Explore the data - gives you a chance to view (and download) data from the current and past PSE surveys on poverty and social exclusion in the UK.
• Read a summary of the first PSE: UK research report in PSE report impoverished nation or download the report 'The impoverishment of the UK
• There are 9 days left to watch the ITV ‘Tonight’ programme, ‘Breadline Britain’, featuring some of the first results from the PSE:UK research study on the ITV player. You can explore the findings on which it’s based in Facts and Findings 1: Falling Below Minimum Standards. 

Free Evidenced Based Research On Poverty & Social Exclusion

The PSE website is a free educational resource for academics, students, NGOs and policy makers interested in evidence-based research on poverty and social exclusion in the UK. 

 

It contains information on: methodology, conducting original and ethical research, research findings, international surveys, as well as up-to-date articles and a searchable digest of news stories and reports on welfare, poverty, inequality and more.

 

They will also be publishing the results of two major surveys, exclusively on this site, over the next few weeks.

New Reports On Poverty From The Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Photograph by Ed Yourdon

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has recently published a series of reports looking at poverty in the UK. They are:

• The Links Between Housing & Poverty. A study looking at housing experience and its relationship to poverty and the role of housing in enabling people to take up employment.
• Measuring Child Poverty: A Consultation On Better MeasuresOf Child Poverty. JRF's response to the Department for Education on 'Measuring Child Poverty: a consultation on better measures of child poverty'.
• Poverty And Low Educational Achievement In Wales. Looks at the evidence and considers the best measures to improve educational achievement for children living in poverty in Wales.
• Poverty And Ethnicity In Northern Ireland. This study examines the evidence on how people across different ethnic groups in Northern Ireland experience poverty and how this affects their access to work and support, including key services.
• Monitoring Poverty And Social Exclusion in Scotland 2013. JRF's sixth study of poverty and social exclusion in Scotland highlights a huge rise in unemployment for under-25s, and stark and growing health inequalities.Using the latest Government data, it assesses a wide range of indicators including unemployment, education, and health.
• Monitoring Poverty And Sociual Exclusion 2012. Is tackling in-work poverty the key for anti-poverty initiatives?
  
  
  You can find even more reports on poverty by the JRF on their website here: http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications

Poverty Film Gallery From The Joseph Rowntree Foundation

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a poverty film gallery with a series of films bringing to life the real issues people face by living in poverty.

The films are available to view online here: http://www.jrf.org.uk/film-gallery/poverty-film-gallery

'Reality' OF UK Poverty Capatured In Online BBC Storyville Films

Three eye-opening JRF/BBC documentaries are now available to watch online.

Filmmaker Andy Glynne discusses the Why Poverty? series and explains: 

 

As a filmmaker, I'd travelled a lot, and filmed the images that we still associate with the word 'poverty': malnourished children in sub-Saharan Africa; those with no roofs over their heads or without access to water. Poverty was, I had thought, an absence of the fundamentals to live by, and we filmmakers trooped around the world highlighting the inequalities between the rich North and the poor South, bringing awareness to a problem far away, somewhere on the other side of the world – somewhere that, well, wasn't here.

Because – as the notion goes – inequalities on this scale don't exist here in the UK, do they? Well, yes and no. It was when embarking on this project that the notion of relative poverty – in which poverty can exist for those who are considerably worse off than the majority of the population – became of interest.

As we researched stories about poverty in the UK, we became aware of the ways in which being relatively poor can have a plethora of horrible consequences. And although such consequences may seem to lack the immediacy of being acutely life-threatening, they can nevertheless insidiously create physical, psychological and social inequalities on a hugely significant scale.

The three films are available to watch online on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website: http://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/2013/01/poverty-captured-bbc-storyville-films 

Beveridge Report: From 'deserving poor' to 'scroungers'

BBC News Magazine has an extensive article on the history of the welfare state and the public's changing attitudes.

Many people today are more suspicious of those claiming benefits, viewing them as 'scroungers' rather than 'deserving poor' - although research shows that benefit fraud is very low.

You can read the full article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20431729

Universal Credit: Benefits Claimants Could Find Themselves Trapped in Poverty

Benefit claimants could find themselves "trapped in poverty" when a new single welfare payment is introduced next year, it is being claimed.

While the Universal Credit was sound "in principle", the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said its implementation could leave some people worse off. It warned any financial gains people might make in part-time jobs may be wiped out if they found full-time work.

In the biggest shake-up of the welfare system in generations, the single consolidated payment will replace a host of existing working age benefits for new claimants from October 2013.

Ministers say the Universal Credit - to replace income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Child Tax Credits, Working Tax Credits and Housing Benefit - will increase work incentives and reduce poverty among those on low incomes by ensuring people keep more of their income in employment and benefits are withdrawn more gradually.

But analysis of the new system for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, by the University of Portsmouth and the Centre for Social and Economic Inclusion, has raised serious concerns about its administration and potential outcomes.

You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here.

How Much Does A Child Cost in 2012?

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has published a new report on how much it costs to bring up a child with a minimum level of participation in society, as well as catering for their needs in terms of food, clothes and shelter.

The main findings from the report are:

• It costs £143,000 in total to bring up a child to age 18 and meet their minimum needs, which is around £150 a week (averaged for a child across all ages and including childcare costs and housing). (Chapter 5)

•  The basic cost of raising children has risen faster than inflation (CPI) in recent years, meaning that with wages falling behind and benefits being cut, Britain is moving backwards for the prosperity of our children. (Chapter 7)

• Childcare can add as much as £60k to the total cost of childhood. Childcare is one of the factors most responsible for the costs of children’s needs rising faster than inflation. The main state support for childcare costs is through tax credits and it was cut by 12.5% in April 2011. (Chapter 5)

• State support fails to ensure basic physical needs are met, leaving many families lacking sufficient funds for a healthy diet for the whole family and living in unhealthy housing conditions with problems like overcrowding and damp (Chapter 3). The maximum support available only meets between 73% and 94% (depending on family composition) of basic costs for children. (Chapter 6)

• A full-time job on National Minimum Wage is not enough to meet minimum costs for children.  For single parent families, NMW leaves them with 89% of the basic requirement; and for couple families it is just 82% of the basic requirement (this is after benefits and tax credits have been included). (Scorecard and Executive summary)

• Child Benefit meets only 20% of childhood costs on average for couple families and just 18% for single parent families. Child Benefit has been frozen since 2010 and will have lost 10% of its value by 2014. Since the war, universal support with the cost of a child, first through family allowances and then child benefit, has been our national public commitment to all children. This universal arrangement will come to an end next year. (Scorecard and Chapter 6)

• Having children leaves adults on benefits worse off. Additional state support for families with children is lower than a child’s minimum needs, so families face a growing shortfall with each child. Parents react by spending less money on themselves; in some cases parents will even skip meals so that their children don’t go without. If a single parent of three children used his/her adult benefit income to top up the child-related benefits so the minimum needs of the children are met, they would have just £12 a week to meet their own basic needs. (Chapter 6)

• The cost of a child rises as they get older (excluding childcare costs). This is because of increased consumption needs – e.g. more food – and also because people believe children are less able to share a room with younger siblings once they reach adolescence. (Chapter 5)

• Costs are higher for single parents and, since cuts were implemented in 2010, the deterioration in income for single parents is worse than for couple families. A single parent has £107 less than they need and £166 less if they have three children. (Chapter 5)

• Parents have modified their own expectations since the recession with fewer meals out and fewer presents for each other. Parents clearly prioritise children’s needs over their own. All acknowledge that life changes when you have children, you make more sacrifices, eat out less, life is less spontaneous and holidays abroad often come to an end. Parents also have less time available. (Chapter 4)

The full report is available to download on the CPAG website here. 

"It Shouldn't Happen Here" , Save The Children Launches Its First Appeal To Help UK Children

The charity Save the Children, best known for helping some of the world's poorest families, has launched its first appeal to help UK children. 

The charity says the UK's poorest children are bearing the brunt of the recession, with some missing out on regular hot meals or new shoes.The campaign urges the government to focus on benefits for low-paid families and ask employers to pay a living wage.

Researchers for Save the Children surveyed more than 1,500 children aged eight to 16 and more than 5,000 parents, focusing on the lowest income groups.

The study draws on Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) figures which estimate that there are 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK and predict a steep rise in the numbers in coming years.The charity defines living in poverty as having a family income of less than £17,000 a year.

More than half the parents in poverty surveyed (61%) said they had cut back on what they ate and more than a quarter (26%) had skipped meals in the past year.Just under a fifth (19%) said their children sometimes had to go without new shoes when they needed them.

The report, It Shouldn't Happen Here, also reveals the extent to which children are aware of how much financial strain their parents are under with more than half (58%) saying they thought it was getting harder for their parents to pay for everything.

Some 52% of the poorest children agreed that not having enough money made their parents unhappy or stressed and 43% 'strongly agreed' that their parents were cutting back on things for themselves such as clothes or food.

Government Spending Cuts Will Reverse Progress On Child Poverty

A new report by children's charity, Unicef warns that government spending cuts will reverse the progress made on child poverty.

The report on 35 wealthy countries says the UK did better than many others at protecting children from the impact of the global financial crisis. It highlights the UK's success in reducing child poverty to date, saying it is linked to the previous Labour government's focus on increasing household income.

Tax credits, cash transfers and accessible public services played a key role in reducing child poverty in the UK and protecting children from deprivation, it finds. Even though the UK missed its own targets to reduce the number of children living in poverty to 1.7m in 2010, it still saw one of the largest reductions following government intervention, it says.

Unicef chief executive David Bull said: "The UK should be proud that our commitment to end child poverty by 2020 in the past has seen a clear improvement in reducing child poverty and protecting vulnerable children from deprivation.

"However, we know that the number of children living in poverty in the UK is set to increase due to spending cuts.

"This will be a catastrophic blow to the futures of thousands of children, putting at risk their future health, education and chances of employment."

You can read more on this story on the BBC News site here: Global Cuts Will Reduce Spending On Child Poverty.

 The full report: Report Card 10: Measuring Child Poverty is available to download here.

Child Maintainance Cost Reductions Could Worsen Child Poverty

A report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee says that plans to charge single parents for access to the replacement for the Child Support Agency could worsen child poverty.

It warns that the Commission's cost reduction plans are high risk in that they rely heavily on the introduction of fees on parents rather than achieving genuine savings. Forecasting how parents will react to fees is difficult. Whilst ensuring parents accept proper responsibility for the cost of care for their children is important, it would be unfortunate if an unintended consequence of this initiative was more child poverty with extra costs to the taxpayer. Parents lack confidence in the system, and the Commission needs to demonstrate that it has a service which is worth paying fees for.

The report is available here: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/TSO-PDF/committee-reports/cmpubacc1874.pdf

Income Inequality & Poverty In The UK "Set To Rise" Claims New Report

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a new report: The impact of employment changes on poverty in 2020.

The report states that projections suggest long-term labour market trends are set to continue. Examining the impact of these changes on income inequality and poverty levels, this study:

• Forecasts a rise in income inequality and poverty levels.
• Cites expected cuts in benefits and tax credits as a major cause of these rises.
• Suggests the impact on the overall level of relative poverty and inequality forecast for 2020/21 made by changes imposed on employment and pay structures will be small.

The full report is available to download here: http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/poverty-inequality-employment-structure

Alarms About Malnutrition As More Children Turn Up To School Hungry

A study by the Prince’s Trust and the Times Educational Supplement suggests that growing numbers of children are turning up at school malnourished, dirty and struggling to concentrate because of increasing poverty. The survey of 515 teachers from schools across England is the latest to highlight the impact increasing poverty is having on children. According to the research, the most effective methods of helping deprived pupils cope with the impact of poverty is to provide them with mentors, However, two fifths of teachers said they did not have enough support to do this.

You can read about the research here: http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about_the_trust/headline_news/national_news_2012/1204_teacher_survey.aspx

What Will Budget 2012 Mean For UK Poverty?

Just found a new briefing from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which has some interesting things to say about how potential policy decisions in the 2012 budget will affect poor places and people in the UK. The briefing looks at 6 issues:

• raising the income tax threshold


• tax credits, work incentives and poverty rates


• the 'mansion' tax and housing


• increasing housing supply


• older people


• funding social care

The full briefing is available to download here.

Breaking The Bank: Family Fortunes

Family Action has launched Breaking the Bank: Family Fortunes - a report highlighting the impact of austerity on family life.

The report found family budgets are facing an unprecedented squeeze meaning some parents have less than £2 per person per day to spend on food and many parents had no ability to save for children's future fortunes.

Download the full report to read about the pressures facing families and take a look at some of the messages families are giving the Chancellor ahead of the budget.

Website of the Week: Families from the DfE

The Department for Education website has a section entitled "Families". It contains family policy and information about services to support families. Topics covered include:

• Adoption
• Special guardianship
• Children in care
• Child poverty
• Families with multiple problems
• Legislation
  

Information on the parenting classes trial for parents of children aged 0-5 has also been updated.
http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/families