The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Work skills
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07/02/2014
Cities, economic growth and poverty
Economic growth at city level does not always result in a reduction in poverty levels, particularly in the short term, according to a Joseph Rowntree Foundation study that looks at the evidence on the connections between cities, economic growth and poverty in the United Kingdom.
Category: Reports -
05/02/2014
Combating poverty among new risk groups
Some social policies in advanced economies remain geared toward older segments of society, leaving the younger population at greater risk of poverty, according to the conclusions of a new study from the Luxembourg Income Study.
The paper looks at 18 OECD countries around the year 2004, analysing the effects of social policies on the incidence of poverty among low-skilled young women and men aged 18-30, and among those at risk of possessing obsolete skills (low-educated men aged 55-64).
Category: Reports -
07/10/2013
Work
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.
Category: Conceptual notes -
27/06/2012
Better skills ‘to cut poverty’
Improving people’s skills over the rest of this decade will cut both absolute and relative poverty, according to three linked reports.
The Joseph Rowntree study looks at the relationship between income inequality, poverty and skills.
Category: Reports -
21/06/2012
Response to Northern Ireland’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy
The paper welcomes the initiative to set out a child poverty strategy, and its recognition that addressing these issues requires a long-term and wide-ranging strategy as well as a commitment to monitor this strategy with targets and indicators. The paper, however, notes a disjunction between the overall universalist aims stated in the strategy and the targeted approach of the strands set out to implement the strategy. The paper also notes that the narrow focus on tackling worklessness is insufficient.
Category: Policy response -
07/06/2012
Indicators of Social Participation
This paper explores the definition of poverty, based on the concept that people are poor if they are prevented through lack of resources from carrying out obligations that are associated with their social role. The paper investigates which common social roles are found in social surveys and which activities are associated with these roles. It looks at ways of capturing participation in common social activities.
Category: Methods development -
07/06/2012
Economic Participation in the PSE survey
The aim of this paper is to provide the rationale for the aspects of work that need to be covered, and to identify suitable questions for the main PSE survey to gather the required data. Where possible, it will look to build on questions and instruments that have been used in previous surveys, and to use standardised definitions where these exist. When looking at paid work, data from two large surveys on employment quality are analysed to assess the suitability of various indicators.
Category: Methods development -
07/06/2012
Indicators of Access to Cultural Resources, Education and Skills for the PSE Survey
This paper discusses indicators relating to Domain 4 (‘Cultural Resources’) and Domain 7 (‘Cultural Participation’) of the revised Bristol Social Exclusion Matrix (BSEM) for use in the current Poverty and Social Exclusion survey. In the BSEM, education is treated as a resource as well as an aspect of cultural participation. Questions in the PSE survey therefore need to cover both the educational resources (human capital) of the adults in the survey, i.e. their educational background, and the educational resources currently received by children.
Category: Methods development -
29/03/2012
Numbers of housing benefit claimants at record levels
There has recently been a rapid increase in the number of housing benefit claimants who are in paid work, according to a study carried out by the Building and Social Housing Foundation. The analysis, which draws on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data for Great Britain for 2010 and 2011, indicates that the number of housing benefit claimants reached a new high of 4.95 million in December 2011.
Category: Reports -
13/03/2012
Welfare reforms could push 250,000 children deeper into poverty
The government’s new Universal Credit will hit poorer working mums the hardest, according to a report by the charity Save the Children. The report, Ending Child Poverty: Ensuring Universal Credit Supports Working Mums, argues that the potential impact of the new welfare system, which is due to replace tax credits and most benefits from 2013, risks making life harder for some families.
It identifies three main areas of concern:
insufficient earnings disregards for working mothers lack of support for childcare costs Universal Credit payments will be withdrawn too quickly.Without changes in these areas, it argues, the scheme’s aims of making work pay by supporting parents into work and of reducing child poverty could be undermined.
Category: News stories
