The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Living standards
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08/12/2017
The centrality of poverty
Poverty as measured by material deprivation through lack of economic resources remains absolutely central to understanding the causation of most aspects of social exclusion and a range of social outcomes, concludes the 2nd of the two-volume PSE-UK study.
Category: Articles -
13/11/2017
The extent of poverty
Read more about the first of the two-volume study based on the PSE-UK survey. Find out how poverty affects people from different groups within the UK: young and old; men and women; different ethnic backgrounds; those with disabilities; and others.
Category: Articles -
06/04/2017
Official UK & EU measures
In this section you will find details of the official measures used to monitor child poverty in the UK under the Child Poverty Act, adopted by the Labour Government in 2010. Following the formation of the Coalition government (2010 to 2015) and then the election of the Conservative government (2015-), there were moves to replace these measures with other broader ones. These proposal were widely criticised by an overwhelming majority of poverty experts - see, for example, the PSE: UK team’s response to these proposals in Tackling Child Poverty and Improving Life Chances and Social Mobility and Child Poverty Review).
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31/03/2017
PSE reduced and responsive scales
This paper identifies a subset of necessities from the full set used in the PSE deprivation index which accurately identifies individuals seen as deprived by the full set - at least down to the level of the most deprived 15%.
Category: PSE Report -
30/03/2017
Producing the PSE poverty line
The PSE poverty threshold is a measure that combines multiple deprivation and low income. A 'Note' on poverty measures and 'Steps' to producing a poverty threshold - set out how this is done and outlines the tests made to ensure a reliable and discriminatory index.
Category: PSE Report -
14/07/2016
Academic colleagues: interviews
David Donnison and Steve Winyard, were academic colleagues of the 1968/69 Poverty in the United Kingdom research team at the time of the study. You can watch their itnerviews below.
Professor David DonnisonIn 1968, Donnison was an academic at the London School of Economics and colleague of Peter Townsend and Brian Abel-Smith. In 1969, he went on to work at the research think-tank, The Centre for Environmental Studies, and then, in 1975, became Chair of the Supplementary Benefits Commission. In 1980, he moved to Glasgow University where he is now an Emeritus Professor in Urban Studies. In this interivew, he reflects back on the impact of social science research over the last fifty years. His interview is in six parts:
Category: Townsend document -
14/07/2016
Interviews: PinUK survey fieldworkers
The ‘Poverty in the UK: advancing paradata analysis and open access’ research study traced and video-interviewed 8 of the field interviewers for the 1968-69 Townsend Poverty in the UK survey: Angela Avens, Andrea Cordani, Deidre Forsyth, Morag Macdonald, Ian NcCannah, Annie Neligan, Fred Twine and Una Widdett.
Some of these field workers were students doing the work as a summer job, others were more experienced research interviewing. These interviews provides unparalleled insight into the conduct of the survey and the role of the field worker.
The interviews were conducted by Karen Bell (university of Bristol) and Heather Elliot (Institute of Education, UCL) for the ‘Poverty in the UK: advancing paradata analysis and open access’ study
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Category: Townsend document -
14/07/2016
Interviews: PinUK survey researchers
The research team for the Poverty in the UK survey of 1968-69 were based at the University of Essex and the London School of Economics. The project was set up by Peter Townsend and Brian Abel-Smith who left part way through the project to become a Senior Advisor at the Department of Health and Social Security.
There were three research officers: Hilary Land, Dennis Marsden and John Veit-Wilson who were joined by Adrian Sinfield. Below you can watch interviews with the three surviving members of this core team:
Hilary Land, currenly Emeritus Professor of Family Policy and Child Welfare, University of Bristol
John Veit-Wilson, currenly Emeritus professor Sociology, Newcastle University
Adrian Sinfield, currently Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Edinburgh.
Category: Townsend document -
03/02/2016
Briefings, PhD theses and other reports
Are subjective measures of well being effective at identifying risk of material deprivation? What are they measuring? How should we take account of children's views when examining measures of child poverty? Read Grace Kelly and Gill Main's Phd theses drawing on the PSE research.
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01/02/2016
Books
OUT NOW - the two-volume study based on the findings of the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK research. Volume 1 examines the extent of poverty and volume 2 the different dimensions of disadvantage. Published by Policy Press on November 29, 2017.
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