Low-income households

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has said he finds it 'hard to talk' about modern-day poverty when he comes across families on low incomes who live on junk food but spend money on expensive TV sets.

Oliver was being interviewed by the Radio Times magazine about his forthcoming television project, which he hopes will encourage healthy eating by people on modest incomes.

Oliver said: 'I'm not judgmental, but I've spent a lot of time in poor communities, and I find it quite hard to talk about modern-day poverty. You might remember that scene in Ministry of Food [a previous series], with the mum and the kid eating chips and cheese out of Styrofoam containers, and behind them is a massive fucking TV. It just didn't weigh up'.

Some of the poorest families in England are at risk from changes to the Social Fund for people in financial crisis, says a report from the Children's Society charity. Key parts of the Social Fund have now been devolved to local authorities: but researchers found that the money given to local authorities to replace the Fund is less than half of what used to be allocated to it. 

This working paper provides a review of the qualitative evidence base relating to the experience of poverty and social exclusion in the UK for which to date few systematic reviews exist.  Its principal objective is to identify gaps in the current evidence base in order to inform the design and conduct of the Phase II Qualitative Research of the PSE 2011, ‘Understanding Experiences of Low Income During Recession’.  It is also intended that the review will act as a resource for further aspects of PSE UK research.

The PSE linked up with Poverty Alliance Scotland to highlight key findings from their ‘EPIC’ project. This project brings together people directly affected by poverty with policy and decision-makers to achieve change. A key issue experienced by people on low-income is the stigma of poverty.