Reports provides short summaries of the latest findings of academic institutes, think-tanks, charities, pressure groups and government and international bodies from 2011 to 2014. The reports included can, in the main, be accessed free of charge. For a review of the academic literature, for which journal subscriptions are required, the Social Policy digest is a good source.
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The proportion of people in households living below the minimum income standard increased by one fifth between 2008-09 and 2011-12, according to a new analysis from researchers at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The minimum income standard (MIS) is set according to what the public think is needed for a minimum socially acceptable standard of living in the UK.
Four out of every five English local authorities have reduced entitlements to council tax support in the current financial year as council tax benefit was replaced by localised schemes, according to an analysis carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
At the same time as abolishing council tax benefit, the coalition government cut central government funding for local replacement schemes by 10 per cent.
A Europe-wide universal child benefit programme could reduce child poverty and the poverty gap throughout Europe, according to a briefing paper produced by UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children. Moreover, it says, significant reductions in child poverty could be achieved without disproportionate cost.
Scotland faces significant challenges in closing its 'inequality gap', according to new research carried out by University of Stirling academics.
The research team's work on inequality uses a new model of the Scottish economy to analyse taxes and spending among Scottish households.
The poorest people in society cannot afford to pay the costs of funerals, according to a survey carried out by a team of researchers at the University of Bath. The authors call on the government to review the system of state support for funeral costs.
Almost 1 in 4 of the UK's 1.8 million lone-parent households – 650,000 in total – are not in any sort of paid employment, according to a new report from the Policy Exchange think tank. The report also says the proportion of lone-parent households in the UK is the fourth highest in the EU – behind only Estonia, Latvia and Ireland.
The chronic gap between the incomes of the richest and poorest citizens is seen as the risk that is most likely to cause serious damage globally in the coming decade, according to over 700 experts contributing to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2014 report.
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organisation that seeks to engage business, political, academic and other leaders of society in shaping global, regional and industry agendas. It convenes an annual gathering in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
Newly updated projections of income poverty among children and working-age adults have been published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The projections cover every year to 2017-18, and 2020-21, taking into account knowledge about tax and benefit policy and current forecasts for the macroeconomy.
Although produced for the Northern Ireland Executive, the projections cover the whole of the UK as well as including detailed figures for England and Wales (combined), Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Gay men, together with bisexual men and women, are more likely to experience poverty than their heterosexual counterparts, according to a report from Essex University's Institute for Social and Economic Research.
The study (carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's anti-poverty strategies programme) reviews research evidence on the link between specific sexual orientations and poverty, and considers what should be included in anti-poverty strategies in relation to sexual orientation.
The importance of the weighting schemes used when compiling multi-dimensional poverty assessments has been highlighted in a research paper. The paper, written by a team in the Netherlands, points out that different weightings can result in different prescriptions for anti-poverty policies, where effectiveness is assessed by looking at the reduction in the numbers of those counted as being in poverty.
The paper uses data from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to evaluate how alternative weighting structures affect the measurement of poverty for the population of over-50s in ten European countries. It considers the three dimensions of income and wealth, housing conditions and health condition (including mental health).
