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Title: |
Low income households: casualties of the boom, casualties of the bust? |
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Reference: |
Social Policy and Society, 11(1), January 2012, pp.81-91. |
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ISSN paper: |
1474-7464 |
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ISSN online: |
1475-3073 |
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Abstract: |
This article reflects on research undertaken with low income households over a 12 month period. Fieldwork took place in 2008-9, a period of rapid financial change in which the ‘credit crunch’ ended a period of boom and triggered a period of bust. The aims of the research were to investigate the factors that make households vulnerable to debt, what triggers debt, the impact of debt, and how over-indebted people manage their debts and how they get out of debt. The research involved 2-monthly interviews with 57 people of working age from low income households in the Midlands (Derby, Leicester, and Nottingham). The research did not find a picture of profligate use of credit to acquire a high materialistic standard of living. The use of credit and the acquisition of debt was a function of persistent low levels of income, exacerbated by repeated moves between work and welfare dependency. The article argues that people living on persistent low incomes were casualties of the economic boom as they did not benefit from economic growth and of the bust in that they most keenly felt the impact of the recession and the reaction of financial institutions to the new financial landscape. |
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article; |
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www.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/profile.asp?guid=f2b15ebb-e9d0-4f40-80d3-125de7cd8cea |
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