At the second Townsend Memorial conference, leading international researchers examined poverty measurement around the world. Hear from key speakers on why poverty measurement matters for tackling poverty.
How poor is too poor? What does a person need to participate in society in Britain in the 21st century? What is the minimum standard of living to which everyone should be entitled? Who falls below?
These aren't just abstract, academic questions - they are key to people's life chances and opportunities. They provide a basis for redistributing income and resources through the tax and benefit system. They are essential for determining questions of fairness.
So how should we measure poverty? Key government measures take 60% of median income as the poverty line. But while this is easy to measure and does provide useful comparisons over time, it is essentially arbitrary and is currently being questioned (see “ Redefining Poverty”).
The PSE studies, by contrast, look directly at living standards and ask people what they think are necessities for living in the UK to establish a publicly agreed minimum standard. Those who have no choice but to fall below these minimum standards are defined as being in 'poverty'. Using this consensual approach to measuring poverty, the results of this research will provide an independent assessment of the impact of government policies.
What is poverty? has more information and discussion on the measurement of poverty and social exclusion.
This website is being developed to report research into poverty, both in the UK and internationally. We will be concentrating on research that uses direct measures of deprivation and social exclusion rather than income measures. In particular, we will be following the research of a major new study into poverty and social exclusion in the UK funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, PSE 2011.
This important research project will provide a new understanding of what it is like to live in poverty in the UK today and how this interacts with social exclusion. It builds on the methodology developed in the earlier Breadline Britain and PSE studies, which pioneered the 'consensual' or 'perceived deprivation' approach to measuring poverty.
Research has further details on the current research project as well as past surveys and research in this and related areas.
Current government policy on social justice hinges on the claim that there are 120,000 ‘troubled families’ in Britain. In this important PSE: UK policy working paper, Ruth Levitas argues that if we interrogate the research on which this figure is based, it turns out to be a factoid – something that takes the form of a fact, but is not. It is used to support policies that in no way follow from the research on which the figure is based.
Read more
The Poverty and Social Exclusion surveys pioneered using public opinion to set minimum living standards. We are again asking people which items and activities from a range of aspects of our living standards should be seen as necessities.
It would be great if you could take part. Any personal details will be kept completely confidential.
If you'd like to stay in touch with our research, make comments or suggest ideas, please contact us.
PSE 2011 is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.
An ESRC Research Programme
