Lone parents under pressure

Of 2.5 million children living in lone parent households0F 1 today, over 1.8 million have insufficient income coming into their household to afford a minimum standard of living, allowing them to meet material needs and participate in society. That is to say, nearly three out four children with a lone parent have household income below the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) benchmark showing what ordinary families say is needed as a minimum in the UK today. ...

Households below a Minimum Income Standard: 2008/09 to 2016/17

This report looks at changes in the adequacy of incomes, as measured by individuals’ ability to reach the Minimum Income Standard (MIS), a measure rooted in what members of the public consider is needed for a minimum socially acceptable standard of living. This is the seventh in a series of reports monitoring the total number of individuals in the UK living below the MIS threshold, and looking in detail at the family and household characteristics of those below this threshold. This report focuses in particular on three demographic groups – children, working-age adults and pensioners – exploring how they have fared between 2008/09 and 2016/17

Life-course occupational social class and health in later life: The importance of frequency and timing of measures

Research investigating associations between social class over the life-course and later health relies primarily on secondary analysis of existing data, limiting the number and timing of available measurements. This paper aims to examine the impact of these constraints on the measurement of life-course occupational social class and subsequent explanatory analyses predicting health in later life. Participants of the UK Boyd Orr Lifegrid Subsample (n = 294), aged an average of 68 years, provided retrospective information on their life-course occupational social class, coded at 6-month intervals. This was used to simulate two types of life-course data: (1) Theoretical: Life stage (four data-points at key life stages); (2) A-theoretical: Panel data (data-points at regular intervals of varying length). The percentage of life time in disadvantage and the predictive value for limiting longstanding illness (LLI) in later life using the full life-course and simulated data was compared. The presence of 'critical periods' of exposure and the role of trajectories of social class were also investigated. Compared with the full data, the life stage approach estimated a higher percentage of life time in disadvantage and emphasised 'transient' periods in disadvantage (e.g. labour market entry). With varying intervals using the a-theoretical approach, there was no clear pattern. Percentage of life time in manual class was a significant predictor of LLI only when using the four-point life stage approach. Occupational social class at labour market entry was a predictor of LLI in later life, suggesting a 'critical period'. Comparison of trajectories of social class further emphasised the importance of the sequence and timing of exposures to disadvantage in determining later health. We conclude that producing a valid summary of life-course occupational social class does not necessarily require a large number of data-points, particularly if guided by relevant theory, and that such measures can reveal important associations with later health. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

The transition to living alone and psychological distress in later life

Background: living alone in later life has been linked to psychological distress but less is known about the role of the transition into living alone and the role of social and material resources.Methods: a total of 21,535 person-years of data from 4,587 participants of the British Household Panel Survey aged 65+ are analysed. Participants provide a maximum 6 years' data (t0-t5), with trajectories of living arrangements classified as: consistently partnered/ with children/alone; transition from partnered to alone/with children to alone. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12 caseness (score >3) is investigated using multi-level logistic regression, controlling for sex, age, activities of daily living, social and material resources.Results: after a transition from partnered at t0to alone at t1, the odds for GHQ-12 caseness increased substantially, but by t3returned to baseline levels. The odds for caseness at t0were highest for those changing from living with a child at t0to living alone at t1but declined following the transition to living alone. None of the covariates explained these associations. Living consistently alone did confer increased odds for caseness.Conclusions: living alone in later life is not in itself a strong risk factor for psychological distress. The effects of transitions to living alone are dependent on the preceding living arrangement and are independent of social and material resources. This advocates a longitudinal approach, allowing identification of respondents' location along trajectories of living arrangements. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society

Residential mobility across the life course: Continuity and change across three cohorts in Britain

© 2016 The Authors Although a buoyant literature has emerged examining residential mobility across sections of the life course, a full life course perspective has remained lacking. This paper exploits an as yet under-used data source – the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing – to achieve this. The lifetime residential mobility trajectories of older men and women in three birth cohorts born between 1918 and 1947 are compared, examining how these are associated with changes in cohort members’ socio-historical contexts, and life course events in the domains of employment, partnership and fertility. Results indicate that change in residential mobility between cohorts is gendered, with persistent continuity between male cohorts, and marked change between female cohorts. Such gender differentials are particularly notable during young adulthood, highlighting the significance of de-standardising pathways to adulthood and the changing role of women in society. Generalised mobility pathways from birth to age 60 for men and women are identified using sequence analysis, and the paper discusses how these may be associated with contextual changes and life course characteristics. In conclusion, the research reflects on the benefits of the life course perspective for understanding the complexities of residential mobility, and the importance of socio-historical context in understanding trends and patterns in this area

The low income gap: a new indicator based on a minimum income standard

In many high-income countries, governments seek to ensure that households at least have sufficient incomes to afford basic essentials such as food and clothing, but also to help citizens reach socially acceptable living standards allowing full participation in society. Their success in doing so is commonly monitored in terms of how many citizens are below a poverty line set relative to median income, and by how far below it they fall (the ‘poverty gap’). Yet the threshold below which this gap starts to be measured is arbitrary, begging the question of what level of low income needs addressing. A more ambitious measure, presented in this paper, considers the extent to which people fall short of a benchmark representing a socially agreed minimum standard. This ‘low income gap’ can be used to represent the distance a society has to go to eliminate income that is undesirably low. The paper presents the indicator, its meaning and some recent trends in the United Kingdom, where the methodology behind the indicator has been pioneered. The results demonstrate that this empirically derived benchmark has the potential to be of value in other countries, in assessing whether they are making progress in reducing low income.<br

A Minimum Income Standard for London 2018

The new Minimum Income Standard (MIS) London report shows that 41% of Londoners cannot afford a basic decent standard of living. MIS is the income that people need in order to achieve a minimum socially acceptable standard of living in the UK today. It is based on what members of the public think about essential goods and services, and those which enable genuine participation in society. The new report provides an updated cost of a minimum budget, required for a minimum standard of living, in Inner and Outer London. The research also calculated the difference in a minimum household budget between the capital and elsewhere in the UK. The update is based on what is happening to rents, public transport, childcare costs and wages. This is the fourth in a series of reports by researchers at the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University and is funded by the Trust

Local indicators of child poverty after housing costs, 2020/21

This report outlines the main findings relating to this year’s after housing costs (AHC) estimates of child poverty in local areas. The statistics estimate the impact of housing costs on the number and percentage of children living below 60% median income in local authorities and parliamentary constituencies by using local rent and house prices data to adjust the before housing costs (BHC) statistics, Children in Low Income Families: Local Area Statistics, released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Key findings • Child poverty was down overall in the UK in 2020/21, but is likely to be a temporary improvement related to the additional support provided to low-income families during the Covid-19 pandemic via the £20 uplift to Universal Credit. • There is substantial regional variation in the AHC rates. Child poverty has continued to increase in the North East and Wales, and the North East has now overtaken London to have the highest AHC child poverty rate in the UK. • At a local level, local authorities and constituencies in London continue to dominate the top 20 areas with the highest AHC child poverty rates. Rates are also high in other large urban local authorities and constituencies, including in Birmingham and Manchester, and in areas of the North East. • The statistics highlight major inequalities in rates of child poverty both between and within regions of the UK, indicating that ‘levelling up’ is far from becoming a reality in the case of child poverty. </p

Local indicators of child poverty after housing costs, 2022/23: estimates of child poverty after housing costs in parliamentary constituencies and local authorities

Executive summaryThis report summarises findings for the latest update to the Local Indicators of Child PovertyAfter Housing Costs statistics produced by the Centre for Research in Social Policy,Loughborough University, for the End Child Poverty Coalition. The data build upon theChildren in Low Income Families data produced by the Department for Work and Pensions,which show the rate of child poverty before housing costs in local areas. Using localadministrative data and analysis of the household survey Understanding Society, weproduced modelled estimates that account for housing costs, thereby providing a moreaccurate picture of how disposable incomes vary in different geographical areas.We present findings for the new parliamentary constituencies that will come into effectfollowing the general election in July 2024, providing a valuable source of information forthe incoming government in developing targeted strategies to reduce child poverty acrossthe UK.Key findings• In 2022/23, national estimates indicate that 4.3 million children (30% of all children) were in relative poverty, and the poverty rate also remains high across the nations and regions.• In two-thirds of constituencies, at least one in four children are in relative poverty after housing costs.• Rates of child poverty at or above 25% are particularly prevalent in the North East, North West and Wales.• There is widespread inequality in the rate of child poverty within the countries and regions of the UK, and this has widened over time.• Constituency-level child poverty rates are directly and strongly correlated with the percentage of children affected by the two-child limit in that local area, providing further evidence that the policy is a key driver of child poverty.• Reducing child poverty in local areas will rely not only on targeted action within these communities, but will require changes at a national level such as removing the two-child limits and increasing the value of working age benefits.</p

Local indicators of child poverty after housing costs, 2021/22

This report summarises the latest data on local child poverty after housing costs, produced for the End Child Poverty Coalition by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University. The data are for the year ending March 2022. The data do not, therefore, cover the period during which the cost-of-living crisis really took hold, nor the period of extremely high and rising inflation that has been particularly prominent in relation to the costs of food and fuel. The data also have yet to reflect the full impact of the Scottish Child Payment.0F1 However, the period does include a six-month extension to the £20 per week increase the standard allowance of Universal Credit (UC) provided by the Government in response the Covid-19 pandemic. This uplift, amounting to just over £1,000 additional income per year for households in receipt of UC, was removed in October 2021. This measure is likely to have pushed down poverty rates for families during this period. Nevertheless, rates remain high across the UK, with regions in the North of England and the Midlands faring particularly badly based on this year’s estimates. Figure 1 shows overall rates of child poverty in the regions and countries of the UK in 2021/22. These regional statistics derived from the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data released annually by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are considered the official poverty statistics for the UK. They are usually based on three-year averages, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, collection of household-level data via cross-sectional surveys such as the Family Resources Survey (on which the official poverty statistics are based) became more problematic, and the 2020/21 survey included only around half the usual sample. The single-year regional estimates for 2020/21 were therefore considered less reliable than usual, so the regional statistics for 2021/22 exclude these data and instead use the two-year average of 2019/20 and 2021/22.</p