This working paper describes an experimental collaboration between members of the PSE team, the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland and communities from some of the most deprived wards in Northern Ireland. It's aim was to link local experiences to a national research project and to share their findings via digital media tools, such as the PSE website.
The Hard Times reports provide evidence gathered by communities themselves on the impact of austerity and cuts on families and young people across Northern Ireland. Watch the accompanying films on home repossession, struggles with debt and youth hopes and dreams on the community webpages.
I feel like I am walking on the edge of a cliff and at any moment I might fall off.
Average annual inflation has been 1 percentage point per year higher for the poorest fifth of households than for the richest fifth since 2008, according to a new analysis from researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The research findings appear in a pre-released chapter from the IFS 'Green Budget' 2014 publication.
The proportion of people in households living below the minimum income standard increased by one fifth between 2008-09 and 2011-12, according to a new analysis from researchers at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The minimum income standard (MIS) is set according to what the public think is needed for a minimum socially acceptable standard of living in the UK.
Soaring energy bills are forcing families to spend more than ever on heating and maintaining their homes, according to official figures on the growing squeeze on household budgets – with those on lower incomes now spending 25 per cent of their income on housing.
The figures emerge from the latest annual Office for National Statistics report on household spending.
Poor households are cutting food costs in an attempt to cope with the effects of rising fuel bills, shrinking incomes and benefits changes such as the 'bedroom tax', according to the latest instalment of a survey looking at the impact of coalition government policies.
The 'Real Life Reform' project is tracking the impact of benefits reform on up to 100 households in social housing across the north of England through to 2015. This is the second of six scheduled reports on how the households are responding to the changes.
For the first time, there are more people in working families living below the poverty line (6.7 million) than in workless and retired families in poverty combined (6.3 million), according to the latest annual survey of poverty trends from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Families with a traditional ‘breadwinner’ model – where one parent (usually the father) goes out to work while the other stays at home to care for children – are now the largest group of households with children living in poverty, according to research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The ‘bank of mum and dad’ is a crucial source of welfare for people on low incomes, and those not able to access it are at greater risk of isolation and poverty, according to a new report from the Social Market Foundation think tank.
The report focuses on the prevalence and impact of familial welfare in low-income families, specifically the financial and practical assistance parents give to adult children. It draws in part on polling by ComRes – an online survey of 2,055 adults, boosted by computer-assisted telephone interviews with 510 people from low-income households. Polling took place in June-July 2013.