This conceptual note explores work, paid and unpaid, looks at how the PSE research can examine the impact of the trend to an economy based on higher levels of low pay and insecurity and the impact of this on the extent to which paid work reduces poverty. The PSE also explores the quality of work in terms of aspects such as job security, control, flexibility, physical and social environment, anti-social hours and overall satisfaction. And finally the PSE study explores unpaid work and captures estimates of time spend on various forms of unpaid work covering work in the house, caring and voluntary work.
There has been much debate on the merits of tackling inequality by prioritising ‘pre-distribution` - of attempting to achieve a more equal distribution of the cake before turning to ‘redistribution’ through tax and benefits. Stewart Lansley examines the possible impact of a number of measures on wage levels and the wage share.
Country-level labour market institutions and welfare state polices have a 'small but highly significant' role in explaining how in-work poverty varies between European countries, according to a paper from an EU-funded research project.
Around 4.3 million working families, including 40 per cent of all those with children, were receiving benefits or tax credits in 2012, according to a new think-tank analysis – contrary to the impression often given that 'making work pay' is the answer to controlling benefit spending.
The New Policy Institute analysis focuses mainly on payments of housing benefit (HB), council tax benefit (CTB) and working and child tax credits (WTC and CTC) to working families in 2012. It points out that there is no official estimate in this area. Simply adding up the numbers receiving each benefit in isolation would amount to double counting all those who receive more than one. The analysis instead derives estimates from a combination of administrative statistics on the total numbers receiving each of the benefits in isolation, and survey data from the Family Resources Survey and Households Below Average Income (FRS/HBAI).
Around 4.3 million working families, including 40 per cent of all those with children, were receiving benefits or tax credits in 2012, according to a new think-tank analysis – contrary to the impression often given that 'making work pay' is the answer to controlling benefit spending.
The New Policy Institute analysis focuses mainly on payments of housing benefit (HB), council tax benefit (CTB) and working and child tax credits (WTC and CTC) to working families in 2012. It points out that there is no official estimate in this area. Simply adding up the numbers receiving each benefit in isolation would amount to double counting all those who receive more than one. The analysis instead derives estimates from a combination of administrative statistics on the total numbers receiving each of the benefits in isolation, and survey data from the Family Resources Survey and Households Below Average Income (FRS/HBAI).
The links between poverty and job insecurity are highlighted in an annual monitoring report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It estimates that 6.1 million people in working households are now living in poverty – a number that exceeds the 5.1 million people in workless households in poverty.
Not all low-earning working households will be better off under the new universal credit system, according to a report from the Chartered Institute of Housing. It calculates that 400,000 working families will have less income under universal credit in 2015 than they did in 2010.
Almost 1.2 million low-paid workers on the new universal credit risk benefit sanctions if they fail to take steps to boost their earnings, according to think-tank estimates. The Resolution Foundation report calls the change a move into 'uncharted territory'.
Under the planned new rules, claimants face losing payments if they fail to find additional work, increase their hours or find a higher-paid job – the first time such a conditionality regime, already applied to unemployment benefit claimants, has been extended to those in work.
There is no simple link between in-work poverty and low pay in European countries, finds a study funded by the European Commission. Tackling in-work poverty is therefore not as straightforward as simply raising minimum wages, it concludes.
The study looked at the variation in in-work poverty across European countries and over time, using data from EU-SILC.
Child benefits have made an important contribution to tackling child poverty among working families in Europe, according to a new study funded by the European Commission. The study looks at the role of child benefit 'packages' – cash and tax benefits – in lifting working families out of poverty over the period 1992–2009.