The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Social exclusion
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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 -
07/06/2012
Lisbon and Beyond: The EU Approach to Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion in the Last Decade
This paper discusses both poverty and social exclusion as they have been configured, measured and ‘packaged’ in EU policy discourse and practice, and looks at both the content of policy and developments in relation to measurement and monitoring. It finds that the EU has been quietly redefining the measurement of poverty and putting a substance on the more neophyte ‘social exclusion’ as a ‘problem’ for social policy.
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 -
10/05/2012
‘Deprivation is not destiny’ declares Education Secretary
The Secretary of State for Education has said he rejects the argument that pupil achievement is overwhelmingly dictated by socio-economic factors – or that schools are powerless to help children succeed if they were born into poverty, disability, or disadvantage.
Michael Gove, in a speech at a leading private school, began by saying he finds it ‘remarkable’ how many positions of wealth, influence, celebrity and power are held by people who were privately educated. He said:
Category: News stories -
09/05/2012
Growing problem of ‘digital exclusion’
A new report has highlighted the growing problem of ‘digital exclusion’. It provides new evidence that government efforts to move services online are particularly disadvantaging low-income groups, including older people and those with disabilities.
The report is based on a survey of low-income taxpayers across age profiles.
Category: Reports -
02/05/2012
Poverty and social exclusion in Northern Ireland since 2009
A new study has examined how poverty and social exclusion in Northern Ireland have changed since 2009.
Researchers for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found:
Category: Reports -
10/04/2012
Middle-class advantage over public service provision
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.
Category: Reports -
01/02/2012
Austerity measures lead to rise in poverty across European Union
The 2011 Assessment of Social Inclusion Policy Developments in the EU concludes that during 2011 the financial and economic crisis, together with associated austerity measures, led to an increase in poverty and social exclusion in more than half the member states. The report is the summary of the findings of national reports written by members of the European Union Network of Independent Experts on Social Inclusion assessing the policy developments in their countries during 2011. In the countries where the situation has worsened over the past year, the most frequently cited factors for the worsening situation is a fall in employment rates and a rise in unemployment, or the persistence of an already high level of unemployment. Many experts particularly highlight the poor situation of the young unemployed and the growing proportion of long-term unemployed.
Category: Reports -
22/11/2011
Social exclusion
Many of the approaches to poverty explored in other sections within ‘Definitions of poverty’ incorporate within them aspects of social exclusion. The definition of ‘overall poverty’ adopted by the United Nations talks of ‘social discrimination and exclusion’ and of ‘lack of participation in decision-making civil, social and cultural life’. Elements of social exclusion are an integral part of Townsend’s conception of poverty (see Deprivation and poverty), and the original Breadline Britain and subsequent PSE surveys (see Consensual method) incorporated aspects of social exclusion within the concept of necessities (such as ‘celebrations on special occasions’ or ‘a hobby or leisure activity’).
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