The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Income distribution
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07/06/2012
Measurement and Change in Deprivation and Exclusion in Australia: A Report on Research in Progress
This paper reports some initial results from a survey of poverty and social exclusion conducted in Australia in 2010. The analysis reported in this paper indicates that the deprivation methodology is capable of generating robust and plausible results about what constitutes the essentials of life, which can then be used to examine the nature of social disadvantage in Australia and who is most affected by it. Results from sensitivity analysis also suggest that there is value in applying alternative methods before estimating the incidence of deprivation as a robustness check, given the limitations of some aspects of the approach.
Category: Methods development -
07/06/2012
Europe 2020 Poverty Measurement
In June 2010 the European Union adopted its first anti-poverty target and radically changed its poverty measurement methodology. These changes have significant implications for the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom project, which are considered in this paper.
Category: Methods development -
04/06/2012
EU role in minimum income protection?
Researchers in Antwerp have raised the possibility of European Union involvement in setting minimum income levels – while acknowledging the idea currently seems like a political ‘no-go area’ for some richer member states.
Category: Reports -
04/06/2012
Incomes and spending – 1977 and 2012 compared
People in general have become much better off in the last 35 years, says a think-tank analysis, with household incomes more than doubling. But although this extra wealth has been shared among all family types, it has been accompanied by a very big increase in inequality.
Researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies marked the Diamond Jubilee by looking at changes in incomes and spending since 1977 – the year of the Silver Jubilee.
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 -
29/04/2012
Britain’s super rich worth over £414 billion
The wealth of the richest 1,000 in Britain has grown by a further 4.7 per cent, to reach a new high of more than £414 billion, according to the 2012 Sunday Times ‘Rich List’. The Rich List tracks the wealth of the 1,000 richest individuals in Britain.
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 -
16/04/2012
Rising income inequality in European Union
A paper by the OECD in Paris has highlighted growing income inequality in European countries – with large income gains among the top 10 per cent of earners as the main cause. The paper’s author constructs an aggregate measure of EU-wide inequality that takes into account inequality both within and between countries.
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 -
21/03/2012
The impact of the Budget on low income households
The Chancellor’s annual budget statement contained a number of measures, many of which would affect the living standards of those on the lowest incomes. The key announcements contained in the Budget Report 2012 are as follows:
Tax changes
The personal allowance for Income Tax will increase by £1,100 in 2013/14, with some of this increase passed on to higher rate tax payers. The higher personal allowances for those over 65 are to be frozen and then phased out. The top rate of income tax is to be cut to 45p from 2013/14 and some tax loopholes closed. Analysis of the budget (by the IFS and Resolution Foundation – see below) shows that maintaining tax credit levels is more effective at helping those on lowest incomes than raising the tax threshold.
Child Benefit
Category: News stories
