This paper, presented to the ASITIS Children of Conflict Conference on 26 March 2012, addresses the question of what has the Northern Ireland conflict got to do with the challenges we face in addressing the needs, rights and opportunities of our young people today, especially those who are out of

Income inequality is one of the main culprits behind continuing economic stagnation in the USA, Europe and throughout the world, according to a United Nations report. It says reducing inequality through fiscal and incomes policies is key to promoting economic growth and development.

In Poor Britain (1985) Joanna Mack and Stewart Lansley set out the ‘consensual’ approach to poverty pioneered in the 1983 Breadline Britain survey.

More than one in five children in the USA are living in poverty, according to new figures released by the official Census Bureau. The report also reveals growing inequality between 2010 and 2011, and a decline in median household income.

The growing problem of 'transport poverty' in England has been highlighted in a new report. It says over 1½ million people are at serious risk of being cut off from work and healthcare because of the rising costs of owning and running a car, and a lack of alternative transport methods.

The government's decision to change the way benefits and tax credits keep up with rising prices will cost the typical family with children £614 a year, says a think-tank analysis.

The proposed new universal credit system is on a 'disaster course' because of overwhelming practical problems, according to the government's former 'poverty tsar'.

100,000 of the poorest working families will be hit hardest by arrangements for childcare costs under the new universal credit, a leading charity has warned.

The fight against inequality must become a much higher political priority, according to a report published by a new think tank, the Centre for Labour and Social Studies.

A new approach is needed to tackling the growing income gap, based on the idea of 'predistribution', according to opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband.

It may be possible to track poverty by reference to data on income satisfaction, according to a researcher in Germany. He sets out the results of matching survey data against existing poverty measures, such as the European Commission's '60 per cent of median income' measure.

A major charity has launched its first-ever appeal designed to help tackle child poverty in the UK.

Being exposed to family income instability as a child leads to lower educational attainment in later life, according to research in America.

The total cost of meeting the minimum basic needs of a child from birth to age 18 is £143,000, according to a new estimate. This equates to around £150 per week, averaged for a child across all ages and including childcare costs and housing.

Thousands of people in Scotland are being forced to rely on charities for food handouts, according to new evidence.

People on the lowest earnings stand to lose two-thirds of the intended increase to their untaxed income when universal credit and the personal tax allowance start to interact, according to campaigners.

'Striking' consistency is found in the things that different groups of people perceive to be the 'necessities of life' in the UK today, according to a new study.

The UK’s wealthiest people could be asked to pay more tax for a limited period, under a suggestion from the Deputy Prime Minister. He said people of ‘very considerable’ wealth should contribute more in order to preserve social cohesion.

Why has the trend in income inequality been relatively flat over the last two decades, even though earnings inequality has continued to increase?

Young unemployed people in London will be forced to do three months of unpaid full-time work or face having their benefits cut, under a new pilot scheme. The plan was unveiled in a joint announcement by the government and the Mayor of London.

Council officials in the Prime Minister’s own constituency have expressed concern over government plans to ‘localise’ support arrangements for council tax payers on low incomes.

Young people use both ‘neo-liberal’ and egalitarian ideas when describing their attitudes to economic inequality, according to a new study.

Social inequality reduces people’s sense of happiness in Western societies, according to a new study.

People’s concerns over the affordability of basic essentials are much the same as they were 100 years ago, a survey has found.

This conceptual note examines ways to operationalise and analyse living standards in the UK for the whole population, not just the poor, using PSE: UK survey data.

The paper and presentation, presented to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 26 April 2012, report the findings of the Necessities of Life survey 2011 in Northern Ireland.

The richest households have seen the value of their assets increase substantially as a result of the Bank of England’s extraordinary interventions in gilts markets following the global financial crash.

Presentation to University College Cork, Poverty Methods Summer School in June 2012.

Welfare services help to reduce inequality and poverty in European countries, according to a new study. But they are not as effective as cash benefits.

Many local authorities are worried about a looming shortage of money for local schemes replacing Social Fund provision, according to campaigners.

People living in more unequal countries show less social solidarity towards others, a new study has suggested.

Child benefit systems based on the tax system tend to be less generous than those structured around a universal benefit, according to a new study.

The study looked at the changing social and fiscal policy mix of child benefit systems in developed (OECD) countries from 1960 to 2005.

An MSP has begun consultation on a proposed Bill to require private sector employees working on public sector contracts to be paid the ‘living wage’.

A presentation on poverty measurement in Finland was made by Veli-Matti Ritakallio, University of Turku, at the Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference, Measuring Poverty: The Sta

The Family Resources Survey (FRS) is a large-scale annual survey of the incomes and circumstances of private households in the United Kingdom.

A presentation on poverty measurement in New Zealand was made by Bryan Perry, Ministry of Social Development, at the Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference, Measuring Poverty: The Sta

In 2014/15, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey used a new set of questions to examine deprivation poverty. It found 10.7% of the population was in deprivation poverty defined as those who lacked two or more necessities because they couldn't afford them.

The deprivation questions in the Family Resources Survey are asked annually and provide a way to track progress since 2004/05. Below you can see the changes in Northern Ireland during that period.

Research into attitudes to necessities in Japan suggests that the Japanese public tends to have a more restrictive notion of what a minimum standard of living should encompass than in the UK. Nevertheless, there was also evidence of a consensus on the majority of adult items in terms of whether they constituted necessities or not. Read more.

PSEHK reports that 21% of people in Hong Kong are living in poverty having a low income and a low standard of living and more than 27% of children. Accommodation is a particular problem with more than 50% reporting problems. Read more about the full results of this detailed survey of living standards in Hong Kong.

In 2000, A.I. Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, Professor of Sociology at the University of Dhaka, undertook a study of lack of perceived necessities in Bangladesh. The data for the study came from a sample survey of 1,914 respondents, comprising 1,207 males and 707 females from all over Bangladesh.

A presentation on poverty measurement in West Africa looking at the survey of living conditions in Mauritania was made by Madior Fall, AFRISTAT, at the Second Peter Townsend M

A presentation on poverty measurement in Sweden was made by Björn Halleröd, University of Gothenburg, at the Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference, Measuring Poverty: The State of

Since 1997, Ireland has developed national policies to tackle poverty and social exclusion based on measures of material deprivation, those at risk from low income and those in consistent poverty with both material deprviation and lwo income. The material deprviation indicators were derived from sureys on the necessities of life in Ireland. Read more...

The consensual approach to measuring poverty is now widely used in poverty research internationally – adapting and improving the method in the process.

Over the last 30 years, it could have been expected that fewer and fewer people would be unable to afford individual items seen as necessities, as household incomes rose during this period. However, there was little change.

Applying the Breadline Britain 1983 survey’s findings to the population as a whole, and grouping the necessities together into specific aspects of life, in 1983:

Applying the Breadline Britain 1990 survey’s findings to the population as a whole, and grouping the necessities together into specific aspects of life, in 1990:

The National Audit Office is reported to have found ‘weaknesses’ in the contract between the government and Atos, the French private firm paid to carry out fit-to-work medical assessments.

The PSE 1999 survey found that the rise in poverty between 1983 and 1990 had continued through the 1990s, though at a slower rate. In 1983 14 per cent of households lacked three or more necessities because they could not afford them.