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Poverty in Scotland 2022
- Author:
- JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2022
- Pagination:
- 50
- Place of publication:
- York
This report presents the findings of a poll of people in Scotland's exploring their experiences of the current cost of living crisis. Our research sought insight into: people's level of income, debt and savings; the things people have done to cut back as a result of the crisis; the things that people have done to try to increase their incomes to deal with the crisis; the impact that the crisis has had on their health, family, social and work lives; households' ability to deal with unexpected costs and their general feelings of financial security; whether people thought that governments and businesses were doing enough to help in light of the crisis. The findings show that around one-third of all people have either no savings or under £250. This rises to nearly two-thirds for households who are unemployed and 70% for single parents. Going without essentials is endemic - nearly two in three (65%) have cut back on an essential, while one in four (26%) have cut back on three or more essentials. Even the basics are hard to come by, with three in four households having already cut back on the basics. The cost of living crisis is having a deleterious impact on people’s mental health in particular. Some of the key household types that reported a negative impact on their mental health due to the cost of living crisis were: three in four families with a child where someone has a disability (74%); seven in ten single-parent families (69%); four in five families with a baby. (Edited publisher abstract)
Going without: deepening poverty in the UK
- Authors:
- SCHMUECKER Katie, et al
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2022
- Pagination:
- 33
- Place of publication:
- York
This report considers the changing face of very deep poverty and the risk of going without the essentials. It paints a picture of concentrated deprivation for some family types as the UK entered first the pandemic, then the cost of living crisis. Between 2002/03 and 2019/20 the risk of living in very deep poverty has: increased by over half for people living in large families (three or more children), to reach 18% or 1.1 million people; increased by a third for people in families with a disabled person, to reach 15% or 2.3 million people; increased by a third for people in lone-parent families, to reach 19% or 900,000 people. Through a programme of work on destitution and deep poverty JRF intends to collaborate with others to: build insight and understanding into destitution and deep poverty, looking at the drivers and dynamics; convene, curate and create solutions at the national level and campaign on measures that will reduce deep poverty and end destitution; undertake sustained, ambitious and practical work in one or more places, to galvanise a mission and experiment with ways to design-out destitution and deep poverty at the local level; demonstrate what a more compassionate alternative to no recourse to public funds can look like and deliver. (Edited publisher abstract)
Seeking an anchor in an unstable world: experiences of low-income families over time
- Authors:
- HILL Katherine, WEBBER Ruth
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 60
- Place of publication:
- York
This report draws on the experiences of 14 low-income families over a five-year period ending on the eve of the pandemic. It identifies what helped families to keep afloat and what threatened to pull them under as they navigated through choppy waters. Good jobs which provide a route out of poverty, a social security system people can rely on when they are struggling and decent, affordable homes provide the anchor that families need in an unstable world. The report finds that living on a low income involved precarity with ups and downs over time. While some families on low incomes were ‘getting by’, and managing to keep up with outgoings, they were often working hard to keep their heads above water, and risked being pushed into deeper difficulty. Over a five-year period, the 14 families’ situations often fluctuated as changes in work, benefits, and family circumstances impacted on their ability to make ends meet. The factors most likely to help families get by or improve their lives were: steady work, two wages in the family, access to health-related benefits, reduced need for childcare as children got older, formal support and support from extended family. Secure and affordable housing also helped, with support towards rent from housing benefit crucial for those who were finding it hard to manage. Conversely, families were most likely to find it hard to keep afloat if they faced: unstable work, poor health, constraints balancing work and childcare, delays and difficulties with benefits, and high housing costs. (Edited publisher abstract)
Staying afloat in a crisis: families on low incomes in the pandemic
- Authors:
- HILL Katherine, WEBBER Ruth
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 45
- Place of publication:
- York
This report provides a unique insight into the lives of 14 low-income families, exploring how they coped with the first six months of the coronavirus storm. The pandemic brought fresh challenges to low-income families and intensified the pressure they were already under. Holding onto work and a series of temporary lifelines helped some families to weather the storm. But the additional stresses of the pandemic threatened those in already precarious situations. The report reveals that families on low incomes who were already facing constraints and instability at the start of 2020 were more vulnerable to the impacts of the pandemic, with fewer resources to fall back on. Lone parents face extra pressures, depending on one income, and balancing work with childcare alone. During the pandemic, the impact of reduced earnings and extra costs was greater without the backup of a partner, and they could also receive less support from an ex-partner whose situation changed. The digital divide has become even more salient during the pandemic. This affected children who were home-learning without suitable equipment or adequate online access, as well as access to online services and support for parents if they were not confident internet users. (Edited publisher abstract)
UK poverty 2019/20: the leading independent report
- Author:
- JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 99
- Place of publication:
- York
This is the 2019/20 edition of JRF’s annual report on the nature and scale of poverty across the UK and how it affects people who are caught in its grip. It highlights how poverty has changed in our society recently, as well as over the longer term. It examines overall changes to poverty, with chapters looking at the impact of work, the social security system and housing, and shows how carers and people with disabilities are affected by poverty. As concern about poverty in our society rises, there is an opportunity to right this wrong and take action to reduce our high poverty levels. At times during the last 20 years, the UK has dramatically reduced poverty among people who had traditionally been most at risk – pensioners and children – showing that real progress is possible. But this progress has begun to unravel. In particular, you are much more likely to be in poverty if you live in certain regions, live in a family where there’s a disabled person or a carer, if you work in certain sectors such as accommodation and catering or retail, or if you live in privately rented housing. As part of this project, we have spoken to lone parents on low incomes, whose experiences chime with our research findings. They spoke of insecurity across many aspects of their lives: ‘dehumanising’ work, feeling trapped ‘in a never-ending circle’ by the benefits system, and feeling ‘stuck’ in unaffordable or insecure housing with ‘no alternative’. The paper discusses policy solutions, which include: ensuring as many people as possible are in good jobs; improving earnings for low-income working families; strengthening the benefits system; and increasing the amount of low-cost housing. (Edited publisher abstract)
Poverty in Scotland 2020: the independent annual report
- Author:
- JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 33
- Place of publication:
- York
This report looks at what has happened to poverty in Scotland before and during the coronavirus outbreak. Even before coronavirus, around a million people in Scotland were in poverty, living precarious and insecure lives. Although the Scottish Government is committed to tackling poverty, poverty has been rising and we are not on course to meet interim child poverty targets within three years. The relative child poverty target requires a fall of a quarter in the proportion of children in poverty compared to the latest data, which has increased compared to five years previously. The picture for other groups over the last five years is similarly disappointing, with no change in poverty for working-age adults and an increase for pensioners. The paper argues that stronger support at the UK level is need to retain as many jobs as possible; both the UK and Scottish Governments need to strengthen training support quickly for those whose jobs disappear; the UK Government must retain the uplift to the standard allowances in Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit and extend this to key legacy benefits; the UK Government must keep the increase in the Local Housing Allowance and the Scottish Government must commit fully to an Affordable Housing Supply Programme; bold action by both the Scottish and UK governments across work, housing and social security will need to be matched by commitment from employers, housing providers, public services and the third sector. Scotland’s recovery, if it is to be successful, must be shaped directly by those with experience of living in poverty, at every stage, as equal partners. (Edited publisher abstract)
Preventing destitution: policy and practice in the UK
- Authors:
- BARKER Karen, et al
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2018
- Pagination:
- 60
- Place of publication:
- York
This report explores how the policy and practice of both public and third sector organisations at the local, county and national levels could prevent destitution. The research involved 63 interviews with frontline professionals and volunteers from 38 public and third sector organisations in six case study areas: Fife, Hartlepool, Kirklees, Lewes, Newham and Swansea. Findings reveal two main drivers into destitution: chronic factors, which weaken financial resilience and increase vulnerability to destitution – these include low pay, insecure employment, inflation and the falling value of benefits; acute factors, or ‘triggers’, which tip vulnerable people into destitution – these include sanctions, waiting times for Universal Credit and the inability to access disability benefits. Debt to public bodies and high-cost debt are common types of debt for people at risk of destitution. Debt can sap financial resilience and high debt repayments can also trigger destitution. Remedial responses to destitution address the underlying problem and enable people to escape destitution, such as lowering debt repayments or enabling access to increased benefits. Palliative responses treat the symptoms of destitution, such as emergency energy vouchers or food aid. Policy and practice solutions to prevent destitution need to strengthen local palliative responses and reform local practice so that responses are remedial too. The report argues that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and local authority procedures must be reformed to address the chronic and acute drivers of destitution. (Edited publisher abstract)
How poverty affects people's decision-making processes
- Authors:
- SHEEHY-SKEFFINGTON Jennifer, REA Jessica
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2017
- Pagination:
- 79
- Place of publication:
- York
This report summarises the most recent evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic status and the psychological, social and cultural processes that underpin decision-making. The studies reviewed present evidence that people living in or near poverty experience a shift in psychological, social and cultural processes that may hinder their ability to make decisions that are beneficial in the long term. Many of the suboptimal decisions and behaviours associated with low-income groups focus on the present (rather than the future), the actual (rather than the hypothetical), those socially close (rather than those socially distant), and the ‘here’ (rather than places far away). Such shifts lead to choices that are not always bad ones, but rather are adaptive to the constrained circumstances of low socio-economic status. By understanding the decision-making of people in poverty as an adaptive shift in underlying processes, policy-makers and others combating poverty can target their efforts in more sensitive, sustainable and ultimately empowering ways. (Edited publisher abstract)
Households below a Minimum Income Standard: 2008/09 to 2013/14
- Authors:
- PADLEY Matt, HIRSCH Donald
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2016
- Pagination:
- v, 45
- Place of publication:
- York
This report looks at how many people live in households with insufficient income to afford a minimum socially acceptable standard of living according to the Minimum Income Standard (MIS), a measured rooted in what the public consider is needed for a minimum acceptable standard of living. The paper shows that the proportion of people in households with incomes below MIS increased by a third between 2008/09 and 2013/14, from 21 to nearly 28 per cent, although the rate of increase has slowed. Working families with children have faced a growing risk of low income; 41 per cent of lone parents working full time had incomes below MIS, up from 26 per cent in 2008/09; for families with both parents working full time, the risk rose from 5 to 12 per cent. In couples with a single breadwinner, the risk rose from 38 to 51 per cent. Older singles (over 35) living alone and working full-time have a growing risk of inadequate income: their risk of being below MIS increased from 7 to 14 per cent between 2008/09 and 2013/14. Social tenants became more likely to be below MIS in 2013/14, coinciding with introduction of the under-occupancy charge. For pensioners, the risk of being below MIS rose slightly, but remained far lower than for other groups, at 8.5 per cent. Just over half of individuals with incomes below MIS were in couple families with children (45 per cent in 2008/09). (Edited publisher abstract)
Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Wales 2015
- Authors:
- TINSON Adam, MACINNES Tom
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2015
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- York
This findings analyses the latest data to show trends in work, poverty, housing and benefits sanctions in Wales. It looks at measures of low income, low pay and other types of disadvantage. It then considers what challenges these changes and the Summer Budget 2015 pose to policy-making in Wales. It finds that: an average of 700,000 people were in poverty in Wales in the three years to 2013–14, equivalent to 23 per cent of the population; compared with ten years earlier, there are more people of working age (particularly young adults) in poverty and fewer children and pensioners; there has been no reduction in the extent of low pay in Wales for a decade –270,000 jobs, mainly held by women, are paid below two-thirds of the UK median hourly wage; and in 2014 there were 30,000 Jobseeker’s Allowance sanctions, lower than in 2013, due mainly to fewer claimants. (Edited publisher abstract)