This paper is concerned with the likely impact of the Spending Review on living standards in Northern Ireland and especially the living standards of those with the lowest incomes. The cuts in Treasury funding for Northern Ireland are greater than many assume. By 2014-15 all Departments will have substantially lower current budgets in real terms than in 2010-11. The cuts in public spending are occurring in a context of a stagnant employment rate, rising unemployment and restricted opportunities for younger people.
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.
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.
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.
Researchers in Germany have concluded that governments are capable of reducing income inequality. They say that the evidence is stronger for the effects of social spending than for progressive taxation.
The research paper analyses the effect of redistributive policies on post-tax inequality in industrialised (OECD) countries over the period 1981–2005.
New research covering the UK, USA and Scandinavia has found that middle-class people are in an advantaged position compared with less affluent social groups when it comes to accessing public services – the so-called ‘sharp elbows’ effect. The evidence for this is clearest in the United Kingdom.
The paper summarises a wide range of academic research since 1980 looking at the nature, extent, and impacts of middle-class activism – defined as the strategic articulation of ‘non-poor’ interests on a collective or individual basis – in relation to public service provision.
Current policies are unlikely to meet child poverty targets, according to a summary of research projects by the Economic and Social Research Council, Child Poverty Casts A Long Shadow Over Social Mobility. This ESRC Evidence Briefing, one of a series on social mobility, provides a detailed summary of the findings of a number of current research projects on child poverty. The research consistently identifies significant detrimental outcomes for children living in poverty and key barriers to moving out of poverty.