The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Local services
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08/12/2017
The centrality of poverty
Poverty as measured by material deprivation through lack of economic resources remains absolutely central to understanding the causation of most aspects of social exclusion and a range of social outcomes, concludes the 2nd of the two-volume PSE-UK study.
Category: Articles -
10/03/2016
Poverty and local services in the midst of austerity
This latest PSE report assesses the state of local public and private services and trends since 1999. It finds that while most universal services have high usage, leisure and cultural services have seen falls in usage risking a spiral of decline.
Category: PSE Report -
12/08/2013
Councils braced for impact of benefit cuts
Fewer than one out of every four people receiving benefits will be in a position to offset cuts in their income by finding work or moving to cheaper accommodation, a new study has concluded.
The report was produced by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion on behalf of the Local Government Association. It describes the cumulative impact of all the main benefit changes announced by the coalition government since May 2010, and apportions them to each English local authority area. It then considers what action is available to offset their effects – either by the individuals and families affected or by local council support services.
Category: Reports -
25/06/2013
The forgotten poor: refugees and asylum seekers
In all the talk of tackling child poverty, one group has been largely ignored, children of refugees and asylum seekers. Stephen Crossley reports on poverty amongst this 'minority within a minority' and the role local agencies should play.
Category: Articles -
17/01/2013
Cuts ‘targeted’ at poor and disabled people
The government's public spending cuts are targeted at people in poverty and at disabled people, according to think-tank analysis. It accuses the government of having made no effort to understand the cumulative impact of the cuts on minority groups, especially those with the greatest needs.
Category: Reports -
17/07/2012
Society’s most vulnerable people in a ‘fragile’ state
Many of society’s most vulnerable people have been left in a ‘fragile’ state by the economic downturn and cuts to public services and benefits, according to a new study.
Researchers examined the lives of around 100 vulnerable people living in one north London borough. They used focus groups, face-to-face interviews and ethnographic studies in which researchers shadowed residents for a day. They focused on three groups: disabled residents and carers, young people, and families on low incomes.
Category: Reports -
25/06/2012
Measuring Access to Local Services in the PSE UK Survey
Support for most local services, in the sense of seeing them as being essential, remains very high and has in some cases increased since 1999. This is despite several decades of the promotion of ideas about privatisation of services and the current Coalition government’s austerity measures that have resulted in major reductions in spending on local public services, which will have a significant impact on both the level and quality of provision. In this context, this note explores the impact local services have on poverty, the quality and availability of services in poorer areas and the role local services play in anti-poverty strategies.
Category: Conceptual notes -
21/06/2012
Measure of Access to Quality Services for Children – Consultation Response
In this consultation response, Professor David Gordon and the PSE: UK research team recommend that a national ‘service deprivation’ measure is produced based on a social survey question module. Subsequently, the value of this measure can be estimated for Local Authorities (and other areas) by combining relevant census/administrative statistics and micro-survey data using small area estimation models.
Category: Policy response -
21/06/2012
Local Services Under Seige: Attitudes to Public Services in a Time of Austerity
Recent austerity measures in the UK have resulted in major reductions in spending on local public services, which will have a significant impact on both the level and quality of local service provision. This paper presents a new analysis of people’s attitudes to local services and discusses to what extent the degree and allocation of public service cuts reflect the priorities of the general population. Overall, it was found that support for local services remains very high across the UK and has in some cases increased since 1999. This paper also notes that major cuts to preventative services may imply greater costs in core services in the long run. The analysis is based on the PSE: UK research questions on local services in the Omnibus Survey, conducted in the United Kingdom in July 2011. The paper also draws on previous analysis of the 1999 Poverty and Social Exclusion survey and the 1990 Breadline Britain Survey of comparable questions.
Category: Result analysis -
07/06/2012
Access to Public and Private Services in the PSE Survey
This paper presents indicators relating to public and private services, focusing particularly on services relating to health, services for specific groups such as elderly, disabled and young people and public transport. Although many such services are ostensibly ‘universal’, both the quality and the quantity of services are typically lower in poor areas, and families in poverty may face additional barriers when accessing services. This paper argues that there is a need for some innovation in the public and private service questions on the PSE survey due to the changing nature of public service provision.
Category: Methods development
