Childcare support and the hours trap: the Universal Credit

The Government recently announced the terms under which childcare costs will be supported as part of Universal Credit from 2013. It has made an extra £300m available, compared to present spending levels. This briefing updates the earlier briefing Childcare support and the hours trap, published in May 2011, to show the impact of the government’s final proposal for childcare support on work incentives for single parents and second earners

The cost of a child in 2013

This report shows parents struggled more than ever to provide a decent standard of living for their families in 2013. This is the second in a series of annual reports on the cost of bringing up a child in the UK. This research is co-funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation and draws on their Minimum Income Standards project

The ‘living wage’ and low income: Can adequate pay contribute to adequate family living standards?

The success of the contemporary ‘living wage’ movement has been highlighted by the UK government’s decision to increase the statutory minimum wage for over-25s sharply, in the name of improving living standards. This breaks with neoliberal reluctance to intervene in labour markets, yet raises difficult issues centring around whether minimum hourly pay rates are suited to promoting adequate household incomes. At worst, ‘living wages’ could distract from other policies with this objective. This article acknowledges recent critiques of the living wage as an anti-poverty measure, but demonstrates that, in combination with other policies, wage floors can play a crucial role. It shows that low pay and inadequate working incomes overlap substantially. The article argues that governments promising that work will deliver adequate living standards need a clearer narrative in which pay, public transfers/subsidies and sufficient levels of employment combine to deliver minimum acceptable living standards for working families

The cost of a child in 2014

The cost of bringing up children is a crucial factor affecting family wellbeing and poverty. Many parents find it hard to afford the additional expense that children bring, while often having less disposable income because of caring responsibilities or care costs. In 2014, the UK economy is starting to grow after the longest period of shrinkage and stagnation in recent times. In these difficult years, families have become less able to afford an adequate living standard, as the cost of bringing up a child has risen much faster than earnings, while help from the state to cover these costs has shrunk. Although wages are now forecast to start growing again, in real terms, the uprating of family benefits and tax credits has been capped at a level below inflation. This means that the reduced living standards being experienced by families on low incomes is not only persisting, but could continue to get worse. In 2012, the Child Poverty Action Group and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation supported a study developing a systematic calculation of the cost of a child. This report is the second annual update of that calculation, and also assesses the changing relationship between the cost of a child and the wages and benefits of families on low incomes.This year’s report also considers some of the key drivers pushing up the cost of living for families

London weighting and London costs - a fresh approach?

London Weighting has become increasingly detached from additional London costs in recent years. This paper traces the history of London Weighting and uses the Minimum Income Standard as a new basis for setting it for low to middle earners

A minimum income standard for the UK in 2013

This is the 2013 update of the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) for the United Kingdom, based on what members of the public think people need for an acceptable minimum standard of living. This update in minimum budgets is based on increases in living costs. The findings also reflect changes in the tax and benefits systems, which affect both people’s living standards and the earnings required to reach a minimum net income. The report describes the ways in which people on lower incomes are being squeezed by a combination of sluggish income growth, restrictions on increases in benefits and tax credits, and rising living costs. It also notes the extent to which increases in income tax allowances help to alleviate this squeeze. This report shows: • what incomes different family types require in 2013 to meet the minimum standard; and • how much the cost of a minimum household budget has risen since the last update in 2012

Paying the price - childcare in universal credit and implications for single parents

Paying the price - childcare in universal credit and implications for single parent

Addressing the poverty premium: approaches to regulation

Transforming responses to consumer vulnerability is a priority for Consumer Futures. This report, based on research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, is about how people on low incomes pay more for essential goods and services and what can be done about it. It is widely believed that consumers will best be served by encouraging competition on the basis that this drives efficiency and delivers innovation. However, competition does not always work this way and it is consumers on low income that often lose out, but so do others who are vulnerable for reasons other than low income. The fact that ‘the poor pay more’ is not news. This report updates the picture and shows that paying higher prices for utilities and credit can raise the cost of a minimum household budget by around 10 per cent – a ‘poverty premium’. The cost of many essentials such as energy and water are likely to rise and while we hope for a tide of economic growth which will lift all, poverty and vulnerability is not going to go away and indeed many people who are not seen as ‘poor’ will struggle to meet household bills

Priced out of justice? Means testing legal aid and making ends meet

Priced out of justice? Means testing legal aid and making ends mee

Paying for children: the state's changing role and income adequacy

In a number of countries, the state has become more closely involved in helping lowincome families with children to make ends meet – including those with low earnings as well as out-of-work families. The adequacy of such support can be assessed against benchmarks measuring the additional cost of a child in households that maintain spending at a level sufficient to participate adequately in society. A socially-defined minimum income standard provides an empirically-based benchmark, which allows more meaningful measurement of adequacy than measures based on relative income or actual spending patterns. Using evidence from the Minimum Income Standard for the United Kingdom, this paper considers the extent to which the UK state covers the additional cost of having children, for non-working and low-earning families respectively. It finds that the present system has come close to covering this cost for some low-income families, but has started to withdraw from this position. The paper concludes by considering advantages and pitfalls for countries of adopting targeted forms of support for children focused on income adequacy. Such support can help working as well as non-working families escape poverty, but also makes them heavily dependent on state transfers to make ends meet