The UNICEF 75 report, Preventing a lost decade: Urgent action to reverse the devastating...
Europe
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13/06/2012
Damaging effect of crisis on well-being in EU
Vulnerable groups in the EU have experienced a considerable drop in their well-being during the economic crisis, according to researchers in Dublin. The worst affected are those who are unemployed, elderly or retired, as well as those already suffering material deprivation.
The paper looks at whether the global crisis has affected the quality of life of EU citizens, over the period 2007–2010. ‘Quality of life’ reflects income, housing, health, education and employment, as well as family life, social capital, quality of public services, and subjective well-being.
Category: Reports -
07/06/2012
Europe 2020 Poverty Measurement
In June 2010 the European Union adopted its first anti-poverty target and radically changed its poverty measurement methodology. These changes have significant implications for the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom project, which are considered in this paper.
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
UK poverty rate still above EU average, despite fall under Labour
Nearly 11 million people were at risk of poverty in the UK in 2010 – higher than the EU average – according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The ONS compared the UK at-risk-of-poverty rate with that in other EU countries over the period 2005–2010, using data from European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. The EU ‘at-risk-of-poverty’ rate is the proportion of people with an equivalised disposable income (after social transfers) below 60 per cent of the national median.
Category: Reports -
05/06/2012
‘Missing links’ between employment and poverty trends in EU
Researchers in Antwerp have examined the ‘missing links’ between employment policy and inclusion policy in the European Union. They point to the continuing need for a complementary approach to social transfers and labour market inclusion.
Although overall at-risk-of-poverty rates in the EU showed disappointingly little improvement during the economic upswing (2004–2008), this coincided with a convergence between national rates among people aged between 20 and 59. The researchers suggest four factors were at work:
Category: Reports -
04/06/2012
Austerity puts pressure on minimum wages in Europe
Pressure on minimum wages arising from government austerity measures has been highlighted by a European trade union think tank.
The briefing paper examines recent trends in minimum wages across Europe in the light of the economic crisis.
Key points In most European countries, workers earning the minimum wage have suffered losses – in some cases quite considerable ones – in real pay. The ‘Troika’ (the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank) has made a ‘more or less direct attempt’ to force cuts in minimum wages in big-deficit countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. This has made the demand-depressing effects of austerity policies worse and is one factor behind economic stagnation in Europe.Source: Thorsten Schulten, Minimum Wages in Europe under Austerity, European Trade Union Institute
Category: Reports -
03/06/2012
Minimum wage policies in Europe – single-rate systems ‘less effective’
Minimum wage policies based on a single national minimum rate are less effective than others at protecting low-paid workers, according to researchers in Brussels.
Researchers at the European Trade Union Institute divided countries into those whose minimum wage systems produce a ‘clean cut’ in the income distribution – like the UK’s – and ‘complex’ systems where many different minima coexist side by side.
Category: Reports -
31/05/2012
European Commission warns over UK poverty
The European Commission has warned over the potential impact of benefit cuts on UK poverty, particularly child poverty.
The Commission has assessed progress made in ‘reforming’ national budgets in line with agreed European Union priorities. Governments generally have not done enough to allow the EU to meet its targets for the fight against poverty, it says.
In a separate report on the UK the Commission says that:
Category: Reports -
29/05/2012
UNICEF warns over child poverty in UK
UNICEF, the United Nations agency, has highlighted the danger that public spending cuts by the government will reverse progress on reducing UK child poverty.
The report reviews progress made by the world’s wealthiest countries in reducing child poverty and deprivation.
Category: Reports -
11/05/2012
Minimum wages across Europe fall short of poverty thresholds
A new academic paper has looked at the role of minimum wages, tax and benefit policies in protecting workers against financial poverty in 21 European countries with a national minimum wage, together with three states in the USA.
Category: Reports
