The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Employment
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15/06/2012
‘Hidden’ workers trapped in low-paid, insecure jobs
‘Hidden’ workers employed by public service contractors are often trapped in low-paid, insecure jobs where being badly treated is a normal part of working life, according to a trade union report.
The report summarises a two-year project to help the workers involved.
Key findings As many as 1 in 4 people working in public services (around 1.2 million in total) are now employed by private contractors. Many are migrant workers. Outsourced workers often face poor working conditions and have only limited knowledge of their employment rights. Vulnerability and insecurity make workers scared to challenge abuse of their employment rights. Trade unions have a clear role in countering unrestrained managerial power and restoring the dignity of vulnerable workers.Source: The Hidden Workforce, UNISON
Link: Report
Category: Reports -
14/06/2012
Supporting children in poverty – official guidance
Government guidance has been published on how to help families, parents and children overcome the causes and consequences of disadvantage and poverty. It is based on evaluation evidence from the child poverty pilots conducted between 2009 and 2011.
The guidance is aimed at local authorities and their partner organisations in the voluntary, community and private sectors. It includes materials developed by practitioners delivering the pilot activities.
Category: Reports -
09/05/2012
Employment trends set to increase poverty and inequality by 2020
A new study has warned that relative poverty and inequality are set to rise by 2020 as a result of changes in the structure of employment.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation study combines employment projections with a tax and benefit model to simulate the distribution of household income, poverty and inequality.
Category: Reports -
20/04/2012
Flaws in the government’s troubled family strategy
Current government policy on social justice hinges on the claim that there are 120,000 ‘troubled’ families in Britain but this is deeply flawed, argues Professor Ruth Levitas in There may be ‘Trouble’ Ahead: What We Know About Those 120,000 ‘Troubled’ Families (PSE: UK, policy working paper 3). The government programme defines ‘troubled families’ as ‘characterised by there being no adult in the family working, children not being in school, and family members being involved in crime and anti-social behaviour’. But the 120,000 figure derives from households experiencing multiple deprivations, with no evidence that they are involved in crime or anti-social behaviour. Levitas, a member of the PSE: UK research team, comments:
Category: Reports -
01/04/2012
Minimum wage hikes produce ‘significant benefit’ for the low paid
The level of the yearly uprating in the minimum wage has a direct impact on other low-wage employees, with large increases producing a positive impact on wage levels, argues a new paper from the University of York on the impact of the minimum wage. The paper sheds new light on the way employers’ wage-setting behaviour is affected by the legal minimum wage.
Category: Reports -
31/03/2012
Household income ‘nearly doubles’ between 1968 and 2008
Researchers at Essex University have provided a detailed analysis of the near-doubling of average UK household income over the 40 years up to the start of the global recession in 2008.
Category: Reports -
14/12/2011
Free child care would boost female employment
Tax revenue generated by working mothers would far outstrip the cost of free nursery places for all argues the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in its latest report, Making the Case for Universal Childcare.
At just over 60 per cent, the employment rate of women with children in the UK is much lower than in many other OECD countries. It ranks 19th behind countries such as Iceland, Sweden and Denmark, which tend to have affordable, high-quality childcare provision. Many women in the UK, especially those on low to middle incomes, stop work after having children because of the high cost of childcare. In the UK a couple who are both earning average wages spend 27 per cent of their income on childcare while the average for the 34 developed nations of the OECD is 12 per cent.
Category: Reports -
10/12/2011
Female employment boosts family living standards
Encouraging higher levels of female employment would raise living standards in low income families, argues the Resolution Foundation in The Missing Million: The Potential for Female Employment to Raise Living Standards in Low to Middle Income Britain. From 1968 to 2008, women’s employment levels drove more than a quarter of all income growth in families with low to middle incomes. In more recent years it has become even more important, counterbalancing flat wages and falls in male employment. Yet, even while reliance on women going out to work has grown, the absolute pace of growth has faltered. After rising 7.4 percentage points in the 1980s, the UK female participation rate rose just 1.4 percentage points in the 2000s, leaving the UK ranked only 15th in the OECD on female employment.
Category: Reports
