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Policy response papers
The PSE UK research team took part in formal consultation exercises on government policy relevant to the research, and the implications of key strategic policy developments under the then Coalition government. These policy working papers aim primarily to contribute to debate in the UK at both a national and devolved level, and in the European Union. They cover UK government proposals on measuring child poverty, social mobility, 'troubled families', fuel poverty and access to services and the Northern Ireland spending review.
The views expressed in these working papers are those of the author(s). The papers are published under the Creative Commons licence and you may copy and distribute them as long as the creative commons licence is retained and attribution given to the original author(s).
Policy series working papers
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Consultation on child poverty measurement
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PSE policy working paper No. 8, Bradshaw, CONSULTATION ON CHILD POVERTY MEASUREMENT.pdf695.6 KB This policy working paper is a response to the government's consultation paper on Measuring Child Poverty. The working paper argues that the government consultation paper is ‘conceptually completely inept and confused’. In particular, ‘it fails to recognise the fundamental distinction between measures of poverty and the characteristics of poor children and the associations and the consequences of poverty'.
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Response to the Hills Fuel Poverty Review Consultation
Attachment Size PSE policy working paper No. 7, Fahmy, Hills Fuel Poverty Review Consultation.pdf149.82 KB The paper welcomes proposals in the Hills Fuel Poverty Review to measure incomes for fuel poverty purposes after housing costs and adjusted for household size and composition and the call for substantial additional data collection in order to better understand contemporary energy use behaviours and dwelling temperatures. However, the paper argues for a wider range of measures than is proposed in the Hills review and is concerned that the measurement framework will result in low income households living in energy efficient dwellings being classified as not fuel poor.
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Response to Northern Ireland's Draft Budget
Attachment Size WP Policy repsonse No 6 DraftBudgetResponsePSE.pdf324.89 KB This paper is concerned with the likely impact of the Spending Review on living standards in Northern Ireland and especially the living standards of those with the lowest incomes. The cuts in Treasury funding for Northern Ireland are greater than many assume. By 2014-15 all Departments will have substantially lower current budgets in real terms than in 2010-11. The cuts in public spending are occurring in a context of a stagnant employment rate, rising unemployment and restricted opportunities for younger people.
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Measure of Access to Quality Services for Children – Consultation Response
In this consultation response, Professor David Gordon and the PSE: UK research team recommend that a national ‘service deprivation’ measure is produced based on a social survey question module. Subsequently, the value of this measure can be estimated for Local Authorities (and other areas) by combining relevant census/administrative statistics and micro-survey data using small area estimation models.
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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.
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