Child poverty map of the UK [January 2012]

Child poverty map of the UK [January 2012

Tackling the adequacy trap: earnings, incomes and work incentives under the Universal Credit

Under existing tax and benefit rules, households on low-to-middle incomes frequently face high rates of withdrawal of state support as they increase their earnings. The introduction of the Universal Credit does not fundamentally change this situation, though there will be a complex mix of winners and losers. For households with the lowest earnings, the very highest withdrawal rates (where each additional £1 of income is reduced by 90p or more) will be abolished. However for others, withdrawal rates will get steeper (rising from 70 per cent to 76 per cent for existing tax credit recipients). Under reasonable assumptions about the structure of the future system, full-time workers on low wages will tend to be better-off under Universal Credit if they are supporting partners and children , but slightly worse-off if they are single. Lone parents working less than 16 hours a week will benefit, but those working longer than this will be worse-off. People who are not working will have increased incentives to do small amounts of work if they do not have a working partner, but in many cases less incentive if their partner does work. The precise pattern of winners and losers is highly sensitive to as yet unresolved details of the Universal Credit, such as how the childcare tax credit will be replaced. The nature and level of childcare support introduced will affect the ability of many families with children to earn a reasonable income, and determine whether work continues to pay

The use of the Discretionary Social Fund across families : evidence from the Expenditure and Food Surveys

The Centre for Research in Social Policy has been commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to research the current role and future direction of the Social Fund. The research is focused on the discretionary Social Fund. This is one of two quantitative working papers produced as part of this research. This working paper is based on a secondary analysis of the Expenditure and Food Surveys and examines families’ use of the discretionary Social Fund. The other working paper uses data from the Family Resources Survey to examine Social Fund receipt (Legge, 2006)

Priced out: the new inflation and its impact on living standards

This paper that identifies new evidence that, because of a new inflation environment, hard times started significantly earlier for households on lower incomes than for the average UK household. Because the costs of essential goods and services have been rising much faster than standard rates of inflation for some time, households on modest incomes have fared far worse than official data suggests. More and more are struggling to achieve a minimum standard of living. Looking forwards, these lower-income households could largely miss out on the fruits of a slow recovery; following a substantial decline in their living standards, they may see little or no improvement during the next decade

The cost of a child in the twenty-first century

At a time when many families are finding it hard to make ends meet, how much does it cost to bring up a child to meet their needs to a decent minimum standard? This report from CPAG, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, answers that question to show for the first time in a robust way how much it costs to provide children with a minimum level of participation in society, as well as catering for their needs in terms of food, clothes and shelter

A Minimum Income Standard for the UK in 2012: keeping up in hard times

This is the 2012 update of the Minimum Income Standard for the United Kingdom, based on new research into what members of the public think people need for an acceptable minimum standard of living. Budgets for families with children, originally researched in 2008, have for the first time been researched again from scratch. Budgets for other household types have been reviewed. Overall, the report shows that in the past four years both minimum living costs and the earnings needed to afford them have risen significantly more than headline inflation for families with children. For households without children, they have remained more stable

A Domestic Operational Rating for UK homes:Concept, Formulation and Application

A Domestic Operational Rating (DOR) scheme is presented for assessing the energy performance of occupied dwellings. The DOR is complementary to the method used to generate the asset rating of UK dwellings: the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP). The DOR is transparent, easy to calculate, based on readily available information, producible from daily smart meter data, calculable for any period on a rolling year basis and applicable across all UK homes. The DOR method was developed using a new primary data set collected from 114 homes as part of the DEFACTO project. All were semi-detached, gas centrally heated, privately owned and internet connected properties, located in the English Midlands. The mean daily energy demands are analysed alongside information gathered through an energy survey and household questionnaires. These data are presented and analysed for the first time in this paper. The DOR method, which is described in full, generates metrics that indicate the absolute and relative energy demands, greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs of homes. The DOR ratings for the D114 homes were stable from year to year. Comparing the DOR with homes’ asset (SAP) ratings, indicates that the SAP rating poorly reflects the inter-home variation of households’ actual energy demand. For the D114 homes, it was possible produce a reduced data Domestic Operational Rating, rdDOR, using the energy demands measured on only a few cold days. Although developed in the UK context, the DOR is generally applicable to national, regional or local housing stocks in which daily energy demand is metered. Potential improvements to the DOR, and the need for trials using smart meter data from diverse homes and locations, are discussed

Living with the LHA: claimants’ experiences after fifteen months of the LHA in the nine Pathfinder Areas

As part of its reform of Housing Benefit, the Government has introduced, in selected local authority areas, a Local Housing Allowance (LHA). This is payable to low income tenants in the private rented sector. The overall aim of LHA is to empower tenants by giving them more choice over, and responsibility for, their housing decisions. Associated with this, LHA aims to promote fairness, transparency and simplicity and to increase work incentives. The Department for Work and Pensions has commissioned an evaluation of LHA in nine local authorities, or Pathfinder areas. The evaluation design includes surveys which track claimants on LHA over a period of two years after its introduction in each Pathfinder area. This report presents findings from administrative data, the survey baseline and the first two waves of interviews with claimants, and covers the period up to fifteen months after the start of LHA in each Pathfinder area. The report draws on contributions by researchers from the Centre for Research in Social Policy and the National Centre for Social Research as well as analysts from the Department for Work and Pensions. The survey data compares the nine Pathfinder areas with the three Control areas. The DWP administrative data compares the nine Pathfinder areas with the three Control areas and a further six areas. These nine areas (the three Control areas and six additional areas) are referred to as Comparator areas

Measuring resources in later life: a review of the data

This report explores the needs of people in later life, including expenditure, health, social networks, services, housing and neighbourhood, as well as income. The Government is currently planning and initiating policies for a future in which increasing numbers of older people, living longer, will require more resources. This report uses existing data to examine the needs of people over 65. It investigates how patterns of resource use change over time, both for individual older people as they move through later life and for different generations of older people. The report will be of interest to policymakers, practitioners and academics involved in provision for people in later life

Receiving the LHA : claimants’ early experiences of the LHA in the nine Pathfinder Areas

As part of its reform of Housing Benefit, the Government has introduced a Local Housing Allowance (LHA) for private rented sector claimants in nine Pathfinder areas. This report gives early findings from the claimant stream of the evaluation of LHA and covers the period up to around six months after the start of LHA in each Pathfinder. It is important to stress that these are early, emerging findings. Many claimants will only just have gone onto LHA or received direct payment for the first time, so the behavioural impacts of LHA are unlikely to have fed through as yet. These will be monitored throughout the evaluation period to assess any future changes and so these findings may develop over time