Leveraging Policy Data and Harmonized Survey Data to Protect Health and Economic Security:...
Poverty forecast
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19/04/2012
EU poverty reduction targets could be missed
Anti-poverty campaigners in Europe have raised concerns over whether national governments are planning to ignore poverty reduction targets when they take decisions on the next round of EU Structural Funds (2014–2020).
The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) has written to all 26 Prime Ministers in advance of the General Affairs Council meeting on 24 April 2012. The letter makes the following demands:
Category: News stories -
11/04/2012
Poverty ‘shifting from inner to outer London’
Poor neighbourhoods are increasing in number in outer London boroughs but getting fewer in the centre, a new analysis by the University of Sheffield has shown.
Although the poorest places in the capital are still in the eastern centre of the city, it appears that poverty is being pushed out into the suburbs.
The analysis shows that:
430 neighbourhoods in London have become significantly more deprived than their neighbours since 2004, 400 of them in the outer boroughs. In contrast, 374 neighbourhoods across London (mainly in the west and central parts of the city) have become significantly less deprived.The poverty data is based on an analysis by Alasdair Rae at the University of Sheffield of the official Indices of Multiple Deprivation, which measure relative poverty across England between 2004 and 2010.
Category: News stories -
06/04/2012
Child poverty is a ‘multidimensional’ phenomenon
The importance of understanding child poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon is highlighted in a new report from UNICEF, Child Poverty and Inequality: New Perspectives. The report argues that as long as policy debates focus solely on income poverty, children and their priorities will be overlooked, and the battle to end the cycle of poverty will be undermined.
The report brings together a series of expert contributions on how and where children globally are experiencing poverty, and on the kind of policy responses that would structurally address their different deprivations.
Although an adult may fall into poverty temporarily, the report suggests that a child rarely gets a second chance – falling into poverty in childhood can last a lifetime. Child poverty not only threatens the individual child, it is also likely to be passed on to future generations.
Separate chapters in the report:
Category: Reports -
31/03/2012
Income poverty dynamics in the European Union
Two researchers in Italy have published a paper that provides an updated analysis of income poverty in European Union (EU) countries up to 2007 and covers the newest member states. The analysis focuses on the main determinants of households falling into or rising out of income poverty, and finds that events related to the labour market are the most influential because of both their frequency and their impact.
The paper provides a broad-brush picture of poverty dynamics for individuals living in the enlarged EU, using data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Previous studies had examined only the ‘old’ EU 15 member states, and were more than 10 years old.
The analysis identifies which types of event are associated with the probability of entering – and exiting from – poverty.
Category: Reports -
22/03/2012
Government publishes strategy for achieving social justice
The government has laid out its strategy for achieving social justice. The strategy, Social Justice, Transforming Lives, Cm 8314, is based on the following principles:
Category: Reports -
21/03/2012
The impact of the Budget on low income households
The Chancellor’s annual budget statement contained a number of measures, many of which would affect the living standards of those on the lowest incomes. The key announcements contained in the Budget Report 2012 are as follows:
Tax changes
The personal allowance for Income Tax will increase by £1,100 in 2013/14, with some of this increase passed on to higher rate tax payers. The higher personal allowances for those over 65 are to be frozen and then phased out. The top rate of income tax is to be cut to 45p from 2013/14 and some tax loopholes closed. Analysis of the budget (by the IFS and Resolution Foundation – see below) shows that maintaining tax credit levels is more effective at helping those on lowest incomes than raising the tax threshold.
Child Benefit
Category: News stories -
21/03/2012
Targeting benefits at the poorest will not reduce poverty
In an interview with the Guardian, the American sociologist David Brady argues that ‘targeting benefits at the very poorest people won’t effectively reduce poverty’. ‘No affluent democracy has achieved relatively low poverty without robust social policy’, he says.
Brady, the author of Rich Democracies, Poor People: How Politics Explain Poverty (Oxford University Press, 2009) says we need to rebuild trust in a welfare state that everyone feels they benefit from. The problem he sees developing in Britain is similar to the situation that exists in the USA, where welfare is now only for the very poorest people. ‘The more [that] “welfare” is a broad portfolio of social policy to help people across the life span, the more effective it is at reducing poverty.’
The interview can be read on the Guardian website.
Category: News stories -
17/03/2012
Will raising the tax threshold reduce UK poverty?
The Coalition government risks repeating the mistakes of the previous Labour government by focusing too much on tax and benefit incentives as the only solution to poverty, argues a budget briefing from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, What will Budget 2012 Mean for UK Poverty? The briefing also argues that while, taken in isolation, the impact of the Coalition government’s aim to raise the tax threshold to £10,000 could help those on low incomes, it must be seen in the context of overall tax and benefit changes.
The briefing notes that for families with children the raising of the income tax threshold by £1,000 in April 2011 more than outweighed the gains created by freezing child benefit, reducing tax credits and reducing child care reimbursement.
The briefing draws on evidence from the organisation’s previous research to show how potential policy decisions in the Budget would affect poor places and people in the UK.
Category: Reports -
14/03/2012
Part-time jobs skewed to low paid
Improving the quality of part-time opportunities for second earners is crucial to reducing child poverty, according to a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Building A Sustainable Quality Part-time Recruitment Market.
The report shows that the part-time recruitment market is skewed strongly in favour of vacancies with salaries below £20,000 full-time equivalent earnings. It found that resistance to part-time recruitment was highest among employers who had not previously recruited part-time staff at over £20,000 full-time equivalent earnings. The report argues that:
Category: News stories -
13/03/2012
Welfare reforms could push 250,000 children deeper into poverty
The government’s new Universal Credit will hit poorer working mums the hardest, according to a report by the charity Save the Children. The report, Ending Child Poverty: Ensuring Universal Credit Supports Working Mums, argues that the potential impact of the new welfare system, which is due to replace tax credits and most benefits from 2013, risks making life harder for some families.
It identifies three main areas of concern:
insufficient earnings disregards for working mothers lack of support for childcare costs Universal Credit payments will be withdrawn too quickly.Without changes in these areas, it argues, the scheme’s aims of making work pay by supporting parents into work and of reducing child poverty could be undermined.
Category: News stories
