Shadow Labour ministers argue that the party would withdraw benefit from the unemployed for six months if they refused a government-provided job guarantee.

The number of people accepted as homeless in England has soared by 14 per cent in the last year, government figures reveal. Figures from the Communities and Local Government department reveal:

In a speech to the think-tank ResPublica, the Children’s Minister Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather argued that ‘those who suggest that income plays no part in poverty are wrong’.

The government’s austerity measures and rising inflation are eating into the budgets of low income families, according to the charity Family Action.

A report by the Debt Management, Business, Innovation and Skills Committee of the House of Commons criticises the payday loans industry and calls for a number of reforms:

A paper has examined the earliest formulations of the concept of ‘fuel poverty’, focusing in particular on the 10 per cent ‘needed to spend’ threshold first advanced in 1991.

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A well-designed child benefits system can play a crucial role in tackling poverty among lone mothers – and in strengthening women’s autonomy – according to researchers in Antwerp studying the impact of child benefits on the poverty risk of lone mothers in 15 European countries.

Three in four agree that ‘the government pays out too much in benefits and welfare levels overall should be reduced’ according to a survey of attitudes to welfare presented in an article in the March edition of Prospect magazine.

In Tackling Child Poverty and Improving Life Chances: Consulting on a New Approach, the PSE: UK research team has responded to the cons

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.

The government has reversed a central plank of its work experience scheme following criticisms from employers. It will drop benefit sanctions against young people on the scheme who withdraw early.

The ‘in-work credit’ paid to single parents had positive effects on getting people off benefit and into work, finds a new report from the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, The Impact of a Time-Limited, Targeted In-Work Benefit in the Medium-Term: An Evaluat

The government’s highly controversial Welfare Reform Bill was finally passed by the House of Lords on 27 February 2012 after peers dropped their final resistance to the controversial measures.

New official figures on taxable incomes show how those at the top of the income distribution in the United Kingdom have taken a steadily greater share over the last 20 years. They also highlight the continuing disparity in taxable income between men and women.

Better assessment of the cost effectiveness of early intervention is needed, argues a report from the National Foundation for Educational Research, Early Intervention: Informing Local Practice.

Figures compiled by the Daycare Trust for the annual Child Care Costs Survey, 2012, show that 44,000 fewer families will be getting help with childcare costs following the April tax credit cut.

Participatory projects in the area of poverty and social exclusion aim to give people who live in some of the UK’s more deprived communities an opportunity to have their voices heard.

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.

Households on low-to-middle incomes would not see their disposable income approach pre-recession levels until 2020 at the earliest, concludes the Resolution Foundation in their report, Squeezed Britain: The Annual Audit of Low-to-middle Income Households.

Welfare systems targeted on the poor are less effective at reducing poverty than more universal systems, finds the Fabian Society and the Webb Memorial Trust in their report, The Coalition and Universalism: Cuts, Targeting and the Future of Welfare.

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Estimates of the numbers expected to be affected by the government’s Housing Benefit Cap have risen in an updated impact assessment by the Department for Work and Pensions, Impact Assessment for the Household Benefit Cap.

Most employees of the large supermarket chains feel they do not have enough to live on, according to a report by the Fair Pay Network, Face the Difference.

The lowest paid have taken the brunt of the downturn in the UK economy from 2007 to 2011, finds a TUC Touchstone Extra report, All In This Together.

President Obama used his State of the Union 2012 speech to portray himself as the champion of working class America and against the Republican tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Most of the new medical assessments carried out for people applying for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) are inaccurate, finds the Citizens Advice Bureau in a new report ,Right First Time? Employment and Support Allowance was introduced in October 2008 as a replacement for incapaci

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Rising youth unemployment, pressure on pensions and a growing gulf between rich and poor were ‘sowing the seeds of dystopia’ and putting at risk the gains from globalisation, according to the World Economic Forum’s report Global Risks:2012.

Around half a million children in the UK in the 8 to 15 age range have a low sense of well-being at any one time, according to a major research study by The Children's Society, The Good C

Liam Byrne, shadow secretary for work and pensions, writing in The Guardian, argues that the benefits system has betrayed its founding principles and ‘skewed social behaviour’.

A further 800,000 homes will be put out of the reach of people on housing benefit because of government welfare cuts, according to a study by the Chartered Institute for Housing (CIH), commissioned by The Guardian.

The Coalition government’s proposed ‘reforms’ to the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) lack support and credibility and are ‘highly misleading’, says Responsible Reform, a report written by sick and disabled people, their friends and carers.

The delivery of New Labour’s anti-poverty goals was hampered by an unwillingness to countenance a wider range of labour market interventions to reduce employers’ reliance on low pay, according to a report by the Smith Institute, From the Poor Law to Welfare to Work: What Have We Learned from

Increasing numbers of families and adults are relying on food handouts to get by according to reports from a number of charities.

David Cameron pledged a network of troubleshooters, along with more targeted support for 120,000 of Britain’s most troubled families, by 2015. Cameron promised families one dedicated worker rather than a ‘string of well-meaning, disconnected officials’.

Tax revenue generated by working mothers would far outstrip the cost of free nursery places for all argues the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in its latest report, Making the Case for Universal Childcare.

The government will miss the legally binding target on reducing poverty by 2020, warns Alan Milburn, head of the government’s review on social mobility and poverty.

Unemployed people would have to prove they are actively volunteering in the community in order to qualify for certain welfare benefits and social housing, Westminster Council proposes in a consultation document, A Civic Contract for Westminster.

Encouraging higher levels of female employment would raise living standards in low income families, argues the Resolution Foundation in The Missing Million: The Potential for Female Employment to Raise Living Standards in Low to Middle Income Britain.

Households with low to middle incomes (LMI) are more dependent on female employment and on the benefit and tax credit system than in the past, finds the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in Why did Britain’s households get richer?

In a major speech on the economy, President Obama has pointed to rising levels of inequality as a block on both economic growth and social mobility. Speaking in Osawatomie, Kansas, Obama examined the problem of income stagnation and the excessive concentrations of private wealth in the USA.

The gap between rich and poor countries and within traditionally more equal countries has been rising, finds the latest OECD report, Divided We Stand, Why Inequality Keeps Rising. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report found that:

The deprivation rate has doubled and disposable income fallen, finds the Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for Ireland, 2010.

The key points from the survey are:

More than half of children living in poverty have a parent in paid employment, finds the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in their report, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2011.

Current government policy will result in a rise in poverty in the UK, according to forecasts by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in Child and Working-Age Poverty from 2010 to 2020.

While a large majority of people in Britain think it is important to tackle poverty, people are more inclined than in the past to blame individuals rather than wider causes, finds the latest British Social Attitudes Survey, 2011.

A quarter of all households in England and Wales have now fallen into fuel poverty following an autumn of steep increases in energy bills and stagnating incomes, according to a report by The Guardian. This is up from nearly one in five households in 2010.

Social safety nets across the European Union remain far below widely accepted poverty thresholds, including the European Union’s own official measure, finds a new paper from the Institute for the Study of Labour in Bonn, Do Europe’s Minimum Income Schemes Provide Adequate Shelter Against the