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A minimum income standard for the United Kingdom in 2021
- Authors:
- DAVIS Abigail, et al
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 43
- Place of publication:
- London
This report looks at the current levels of minimum income standard (MIS), on the extent to which people can achieve this based on benefits, Universal Credit (UC) and the National Living Wage (NLW), and on preliminary research considering how norms have been affected by COVID-19. Families with children saw a 2.5% rise in minimum living costs and a 3–4% rise in childcare costs, but benefits and UC increased at a slower rate. In 2021 out-of-work families with children on UC fall about 40% short of the income they need, and those without children fall 60% short. Work improves income considerably, even part-time jobs on the NLW, but still mainly falls short of enabling people to reach MIS, holding back millions of households from reaching the income considered adequate by society. Even working full time, a single person falls 14% short of this standard and a lone parent with two children falls 12% short, although a couple with two children can reach it if both parents work full time. For those with part-time jobs, the shortfalls are much greater, underlining the damaging effects of uncertain and sporadic work. Cutting UC by £20 per week, as planned for October 2021, is set to make these outcomes considerably worse. Other adverse factors that need addressing include the growing reach of the Benefit Cap, now affecting families with two or more children, and the growing number of families living in privately rented housing, for whom high rents can reduce net incomes considerably. The report argues that in the wake of the pandemic, it is essential to develop new approaches to ensuring that people are not held back by inadequate benefits, and uncertain and unstable job prospects. (Edited publisher abstract)
How social security can deliver for disabled people in Scotland
- Author:
- YOUNG Shelagh
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 29
- Place of publication:
- London
This research looks at how disability assistance could reduce poverty in Scotland. In particular, it looks at how the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland can look to maximise the power of social security to improve living standards and loosen poverty’s grip on disabled people. The report finds that while the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland’s approach, which is rightly based on dignity, is a welcome change, there are concerns that this will not be reflected in practice. To ensure the social security system works better for disabled people, the next Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland should: continue to recognise disabled people’s distrust of the social security system, and determinedly reiterate their commitment to disabled people receiving the payments they are entitled to through a system with dignity at its core; work to raise broader public awareness of people’s entitlement to disability assistance benefits, because the lack of awareness is causing stigma that is discouraging people from applying – one specific goal should be to re-establish the fact that Disability Assistance is for the additional costs of living incurred by disabled people; as a key underpinning of that, incorporate the rights of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into devolved law; ensure meaningful scrutiny of the new disability assistance benefits by disabled people and Disabled People’s Organisations; ensure that sufficient funding is provided to third sector organisations and support agencies including Disabled People’s Organisations for advice and advocacy to assist disabled people in accessing the payments they are entitled to; work with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and local authorities to provide a one-stop shop for disabled people to access all support they are entitled to; bring forward the review of disability assistance to review adequacy of payments and ensure they reflect the real cost of living for disabled people. (Edited publisher abstract)
Laying the foundations for a Scotland without poverty
- Author:
- JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 26
- Place of publication:
- York
This briefing shows how the Scottish child poverty targets can be met, by combining efforts to unlock families from poverty on three fronts: improving the affordability of housing, getting people into better jobs and bolstering social security. The briefing argues that the next Scottish Government will have to increase spending on social security to meet the interim child poverty targets and improve adequacy of support for families and the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) will have to at least double to show a credible route to the interim targets. Increasing the number of hours that parents work and lifting their wages can have a significant impact on child poverty rates but given our proximity to the interim target date the changes needed to do so are unlikely to be achieved in time. Affordable, and particularly social, housing is effective in stopping people being pulled into poverty, and efforts to maintain and increase the supply of social housing are vital. Some families in Scotland are in poverty because of their housing costs. To loosen poverty’s grip, we need to increase access to social housing and reverse damaging impacts of UK social security rules like the benefit cap and two-child limit. The next Scottish Government’s choices will be vital in laying the foundations for meeting the 2030 targets, and we need to make fundamental changes in our society, particularly to our labour market, starting in the next Parliament. Without broader action now to promote good jobs and keep housing affordable, we will leave ourselves a big social security bill and leave too many people adrift in the meantime. Starting that action immediately would put us on a path to deliver a Scotland where the quality of life for all our people is improved and where the experience of poverty is the exception, rather than the experience it is for one million people right now. (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)
Turning the tide on child poverty in Scotland
- Authors:
- BIRT Chris, MILNE Becky
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 9
- Place of publication:
- London
In 2017 the Scottish Parliament unanimously agreed ambitious targets to reduce child poverty to under 18% by 2023/24 and to under 10% by 2030. This analysis shows how much there is still to do, but more importantly, it shows the art of the possible. Despite the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) and the recent £20 uplift to Universal Credit (UC) and Working Tax Credit (WTC), the Scottish Government is likely to miss their interim child poverty target by four percentage points, failing to lift 40,000 children locked in poverty. If the £20 UC/WTC lifeline is cut the target will be missed by six percentage points (around 50,000 children). But meeting the target through the SCP is possible if the weekly payment amount rises to £30 per week per child, at an additional cost of £380 million per year, or £40 a week at an additional cost of £520 million if the UC/WTC lifeline is removed. (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)
UK poverty 2020/21: the leading independent report
- Author:
- JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 87
- Place of publication:
- York
This is the 2020/21 edition of JRF’s annual report on the nature and scale of poverty across the UK and how it affects people. It highlights early indications of how poverty has changed in our society since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, as well as the situation revealed by the latest poverty data, collected before the coronavirus outbreak. It examines overall changes to poverty, with sections looking at the impact of work, the social security system and housing. Before coronavirus, 14.5 million people in the UK were caught up in poverty, equating to more than one in five people. Child poverty and in-work poverty had been on the rise for several years and some groups were disproportionately likely to be pulled into poverty. Many of those groups already struggling most to stay afloat have also borne the brunt of the economic and health impacts of COVID-19. These include: part-time workers, low-paid workers and sectors where there are much higher rates of in-work poverty, such as accommodation and food services; Black, Asian and minority ethnic households; lone parents – mostly women, many of whom work in hard-hit sectors – who are more reliant on local jobs, and are more likely to have struggled with childcare during lockdown; private renters, who have higher housing costs, and social renters, who tend to have lower incomes, both leading to higher poverty rates; areas of the UK where there were already higher levels of unemployment, poverty and deprivation. The report calls on the Government to be bold and compassionate as it decides how to redesign policies on work, social security and housing so that they work better for everyone after coronavirus. (Edited publisher abstract)
Briefing: the financial impact of COVID-19 on disabled people and their carers
- Author:
- JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 6
- Place of publication:
- York
This briefing explains why extending the £20 uplift to legacy benefits is the right thing to do. The £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit has been a lifeline for millions of people during the coronavirus pandemic. Throughout this pandemic, people receiving legacy benefit recipients have been excluded from the uplift despite the fact that most people on legacy benefits are disabled, sick or carers. The paper explains: how disabled people's financial circumstances have become even more precarious during the COVID-19 pandemic; the rising costs disabled people face; the reduction in their incomes and the heightened challenges they face in the labour market; and the impact that extending the lifeline would have for people on legacy benefits. (Edited publisher abstract)
Destitution in the UK 2020
- Authors:
- FITZPATRICK Suzanne, et al
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 91
- Place of publication:
- York
This report examines the scale and nature of destitution in the UK, updating similar studies undertaken in 2015 and 2017. It is based on in-depth case studies on destitution in 18 locations, including a user survey of 113 crisis services and in-depth interviews with 70 destitute respondents. The user survey was conducted in autumn 2019, and captured the scale of destitution in the UK before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the UK in early 2020. The qualitative interviews, undertaken in spring 2020, enabled in-depth exploration of the experiences of destitute households during the UK lockdown that started in March 2020. The report estimates that more than a million households were destitute in the UK at some point in 2019, with these households containing 2.4 million people, of whom 550,000 were children. There was a significant increase in the number of destitute households over the two-and-half years between the 2017 and 2019 surveys. There were also signs of a growing intensity of destitution for some, with more households experiencing both multiple deprivation of essentials and a very low income, and more households with zero income or less than £70 a week. Chapters cover: the scale and distribution of destitution in the UK in 2019; the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on UK nationals with experience of destitution; the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on migrants with experience of destitution; and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on people with ‘complex needs’ with experience of destitution. (Edited publisher abstract)