Consuming forces: generational living standards measured through household consumption

This report, which has been prepared by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University and the Resolution Foundation for the Intergenerational Commission, sheds further light on living standards across generations by considering levels and patterns of expenditure for working-age households in detail. It uses surveys of household spending to explore how actual consumption expenditure has changed over time overall, and for different age and income groups

Compilation of child poverty local indicators, update to December 2015

Compilation of child poverty local indicators, update to December 201

The impact of higher wage floors on labour markets

The impact of higher wage floors on labour market

How much does the official measure of child poverty under-estimate its extent by failing to take account of childcare costs?

How much does the official measure of child poverty under-estimate its extent by failing to take account of childcare costs

Comparative analysis of Minimum Income Standards: Ireland and the United Kingdom

Introduction: This paper compares results from research in Ireland and the United Kingdom, both using the principles of the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) method, to establish minimum socially acceptable budgets in each country. This is the first step in a wider exercise comparing results from the MIS method in the UK, Ireland, France, Portugal and Austria, planned during the course of 2014, as results from the last three of these countries become available. The purposes of the comparison are: 1) To identify similarities and differences in Irish and UK formulations of what needs to be included in a minimum acceptable budget. 2) To explore what lies behind differences and in particular what this might tell us about factors that cause minimum income requirements to differ across countries. 3) To establish the potential and any limitations in such cross-country comparisons using the MIS method. In making this first comparison between two countries, we should note that the Irish research has been carried out in parallel to the UK research, explicitly seeking to replicate the main features of its method, but resource constraints have meant that it has not been an identical design. One difference is that rather than having separate groups looking at the needs of each household member in turn, each Irish group looks at the requirements of a whole household. Another difference is that recruitment in Ireland has been drawn from community groups build up over the years by the charity (Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice), rather than directly from the general public as in the UK, although it is important to emphasise that in both cases selection of participants is to designed to recruit people from a range of social backgrounds. These differences do not affect the underlying character of the focus groups or their mission, but mean that the method is not identical, so comparisons need to be read with caution. MIS studies in Portugal, France and Austria, which have directly involved the UK MIS team in an advisory role, have been closer to the UK method in these respects

Households below a minimum income standard: 2008/09 to 2014/15

This report looks at the changes in the adequacy of incomes, as measured by individuals’ ability to reach the Minimum Income Standard (MIS), a measure rooted in what the public considers necessary for a minimum acceptable standard of living. This is the fifth in an annual series of reports monitoring the total number of individuals in the UK living below the MIS threshold

Households below a Minimum Income Standard: 2009/09 to 2015/16

This is the sixth in a series of reports monitoring the number of people in the UK living below an adequate standard of living. It focuses in particular on three demographic groups – children, working-age adults and pensioners – exploring how they have fared between 2008/09 and 2015/16

A poverty indicator based on a minimum income standard

This paper considers how low income indicators can be related to the Minimum Income Standard. It starts by looking at evidence that having a low income is associated with negative outcomes, and considers below what thresholds relative to MIS households face increased risks. It finds that while the evidence points to no single threshold, MIS can be used to create two useful types of indicator. One is to count the number of people in households a certain amount below MIS at which the association between lower income and greater risk of deprivation appears to plateau. The other is an indicator of the "depth" of low income, in terms of the proportion of people below MIS times the percentage of MIS that they fall short. The paper describes a method of estimating these indicators for all households, and presents initial results

Making ends meet in Leicester

Making ends meet in Leiceste