Research has just been published which unfortunately shows a growing gap in the quality of health...
Low-income households
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29/10/2012
Nearly 5 million workers paid below 'living wage'
As many as one in five workers – some 4.82 million people – are paid less than a 'living wage', according to a new analysis.
The study is published by a leading accountancy firm that supports the living wage for its own employees.
A living wage was calculated to be £8.30 an hour in London in 2011 (£7.20 outside), based on what was needed by the average household type to cover basic living costs. This compares with the current statutory minimum wage of £6.08. An uprated living wage calculation for 2012 is expected to be published soon.
Category: Reports -
24/10/2012
New European aid fund for most deprived
A new fund to help deprived people in the European Union has been proposed by the European Commission. The fund would support schemes in member states providing food to the most deprived people, and clothing and other essential goods (such as shoes, soap and shampoo) to homeless people and materially deprived children.
The Commission envisages a budget of €2.5 billion (about £2 billion) for the fund over the period 2014–2020. Member states would be responsible for paying 15 per cent of the costs of their national programmes, with the remaining 85 per cent coming from the fund.
The proposal now goes to the European Parliament and the European Union's Council of Ministers for approval.
Category: News stories -
22/10/2012
24,000 families in Scotland face ‘severe disadvantage’
As many as 24,000 families in Scotland face severe disadvantage – amounting to 4 per cent of the total population of families with children – according to a think-tank report.
The Demos report emphasises that hardship is about much more than just low income. The report defines severe disadvantage as having four or more disadvantages out of the following seven: low income, worklessness, lack of qualifications, poor physical health, mental illness, overcrowded living conditions, and a poor-quality neighbourhood.
Category: Reports -
23/09/2012
Low/middle-income households poorer by 2020
Living standards for low- and middle-income (LMI) households are predicted to be lower in 2020 than a decade earlier even if the economy recovers, according to a new analysis.
The study, prepared for the Resolution Foundation think-tank, looks at the changing structure of the jobs market in tandem with the effects of the tax and benefit system, and models the prospects for different households. It assumes the economy recovers steadily from the recession, and then grows at 2.5 per cent each year from 2015.
Category: Reports -
17/09/2012
Universal credit scheme ‘heading for trouble’
The government's proposed new universal credit scheme is 'heading for trouble', says a think-tank report. The scheme risks undermining its own goals by taking a 'sink or swim' approach to the challenge of benefits reform, and will leave many households struggling to cope.
The report is based on in-depth interviews and discussion groups with low-income households with children, focusing on budgeting and financial resilience.
Category: Reports -
11/09/2012
People on low incomes at risk from indexation change
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.
In the 2010 Budget the Chancellor announced that from April 2011 the uprating of benefits, tax credits and public service pensions would be based on the consumer prices index (CPI) rather than the retail prices index (RPI) - typically producing a lower figure. The think-tank report looks at what this change will mean for family budgets in the five years after the introduction of the new universal credit.
Category: Reports -
10/09/2012
Childcare cuts will hit poorest families
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. Under universal credit, due to be introduced from 2013 onwards, families will lose the contribution to childcare costs currently available through housing benefit and (potentially) council tax benefit. As a result, help with childcare costs will be limited to 70 per cent instead of up to 96 per cent now.
Category: Reports -
31/08/2012
Low-earner risk from tax/universal credit interaction
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.
The charity Gingerbread commissioned research into the impact of universal credit on working single parents once it is introduced in October 2013.
Category: Reports -
31/07/2012
Tax system for low-to-middle income groups needs reform
Politicians must ‘grasp the nettle’ of tax reform, according to a think-tank report. The existing system of redistribution through tax and benefits is inefficient, and needs to be replaced by one that provides ‘redistribution at lower cost’.
The report draws on findings from the Mirrlees review (2011) and the Commission on Living Standards (2011). It sets out structural reforms designed to improve support for households on low-to-middle incomes. Simply making the existing system more generous to this group will not be sustainable in the long run, it argues.
Category: Reports -
17/07/2012
Society’s most vulnerable people in a ‘fragile’ state
Many of society’s most vulnerable people have been left in a ‘fragile’ state by the economic downturn and cuts to public services and benefits, according to a new study.
Researchers examined the lives of around 100 vulnerable people living in one north London borough. They used focus groups, face-to-face interviews and ethnographic studies in which researchers shadowed residents for a day. They focused on three groups: disabled residents and carers, young people, and families on low incomes.
Category: Reports
