The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Necessities
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07/06/2012
PSE Measures Review Paper: Children’s Deprivation Items
This paper aims to provide a critical review of the children’s items used in the PSE 1999 survey and to provide suggestions for improvements in the current survey. Two lists of deprivation items (short and long) are presented for consideration, along with an analysis of items according to the age of children and recommendations about which age groups items are relevant for. The paper is written for people who are familiar with the socially perceived necessities method.
Category: Methods development -
07/06/2012
Housing and the Living Environment Indicators in the PSE survey
This paper discusses indicators to housing and the living environment, Domain 10 of the Bristol Social Exclusion Matrix (BSEM), for use in the Poverty and Social Exclusion survey. Indicators that capture the relationship between poverty and housing must give a good picture of the following main areas: the physical quality of housing; the degree of (over)crowdedness; the suitability for the specific needs of the household; the security of tenure and the affordability of housing. The effect of housing on other measures of poverty and social exclusion extend to the quality of the neighbourhood and the wider area in which housing is located, referred to as the living environment, which will be measured through various indicators of neighbourhood quality.
Category: Methods development -
07/06/2012
Improving Poverty and Social Exclusion Measures for Older People
This paper provides a review of various measures pertaining to older people used in the 1999 Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) survey and offers suggestions for improvement. Six measurement areas were identified: deprivation; social capital; limitations in activities of daily living; receipt of informal care; receipt of health and social services; and provision of unpaid care.
Category: Methods development -
29/05/2012
Attitudes to necessities 2012 questionnaire: overview
The Necessities of Life questionnaire examines the public’s perceptions of what are necessities and the importance, or otherwise, attached to services. In this questionnaire, respondents are asked to say which of a range of items and activities they feel are necessities and which might be desirable but are not necessary. Items and activities for adults and, separately, those for children are covered. You can take part in the online version on this website. The questionnaire also asks whether people see a range of local services as essential or not. You can download the questionnaire below.
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10/05/2012
Low-income groups hit hardest by inflation
A trade union analysis has found that the cost of living has been going up faster for poorer than for richer households.
The Trades Union Congress says consumer price index inflation for the poorest 10 per cent of households in February 2012 was 4.1 per cent – compared with 3.6 per cent for middle-income households, and 3.3 per cent for the richest 10 per cent. The poorest households spend a larger proportion of their income on food and utility bills – the prices of which have been rising faster than headline inflation. For example, they spend 17 per cent of their income on food and non-alcoholic beverages, the prices of which rose by 3.7 per cent in February 2012. By contrast, the richest households spend just 10 per cent of their income on food and are therefore less exposed to these rising costs.
Source: Press release 10 May 2012, Trades Union Congress
Category: News stories -
24/04/2012
New ‘Humankind Index’ for Scotland
Oxfam has published the first results of a new ‘Humankind Index’ for Scotland, designed to measure prosperity through a wider set of indicators than simple gross domestic product. The index involves a weighted set of elements that people say are the most important influences on their ability to live well:
Category: Reports -
08/03/2012
Low income families squeezed hard by rising inflation
The government’s austerity measures and rising inflation are eating into the budgets of low income families, according to the charity Family Action. The report shows that among families helped by the charity, fuel and food costs were placing family budgets under intense pressure, leaving nothing for parents to save for their children’s future, or for fun activities other children could enjoy such as a school disco.
Category: News stories -
22/11/2011
Past UK research
The current research (PSE: UK) builds on the work of the Poverty and Social Exclusion survey in Britain in 1999, the Poverty and Social Exclusion survey in Northern Ireland in 2002/03 and the Breadline Britain surveys in 1983 and 1990 (see left hand menu). These surveys developed the consensual method of measuring poverty based on the public perception of necessities. They have been used by the Family Resources Survey (see left hand menu) to develop a small set of questions on deprivation for inclusion in their annual survey on household's incomes and circumstances.
Over the period of the Breadline Britain and PSE surveys, deprivation in Britain rose sharply. Looking at those households lacking three or more necessities because they could not afford them:
Category: -
22/11/2011
PSE UK Working papers
Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom is a major research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Launched in May 2010, two major surveys into the public’s perceptions of necessities and into living standards were carried out in 2012.
The first results were published on 28 March, 2013. More results will be published shortly.
Category: -
22/11/2011
Minimum budget standards
Minimum budget standards aim to establish the budget necessary for different types of households to maintain a minimum standard of living. It does this by determining what it costs to meet minimum standards on food, goods, services, activities and other items – that is, a minimum weekly budget is drawn up that covers the costs of these items based on actual market prices. Those whose incomes fall below this minimum budget are seen to be living in poverty. This approach was taken by Joseph Rowntree in his classic study of poverty in York in 1899, where he set out to establish a minimum budget level for subsistence. The same approach was used by William Beveridge in 1942 to rationalise the proposal for social security levels.
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