The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Child poverty
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17/07/2013
Childhood deprivation linked to adult social exclusion
Children from economically deprived families are more likely to be socially excluded as adults, finds a study from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
The study involved analysing data from more than 7,000 members of the 1970 British Cohort Study, and tracking six risk factors: poor physical and mental health; lack of emotional support from friends and family, and of trust in others; little or no interest or engagement in politics; having a low income, debts, or not having savings; limited access to good-quality public services; and being unemployed.
Category: Reports -
02/07/2013
Overcoming persistent poverty
The concept of 'intergenerational poverty' is of doubtful validity and lacks an evidence base, according to a review by the National Foundation for Educational Research.
The researchers conducted a wide-ranging review of UK and international studies, focusing on how children and young people can be helped to escape poverty and deprivation.
Category: Reports -
27/06/2013
‘Over half a million’ children pushed into poverty
Over half a million more children will have been forced into poverty by 2015 as a result of the coalition government's public spending cuts and tax and benefit changes, according to a report from the official children's rights watchdog for England.
The report is based on an analysis, by Landman Economics, that uses microsimulation models to assess the likely impact on children living in different kinds of families – the first time, the watchdog says, this kind of analysis has been undertaken.
Category: Reports -
25/06/2013
The forgotten poor: refugees and asylum seekers
In all the talk of tackling child poverty, one group has been largely ignored, children of refugees and asylum seekers. Stephen Crossley reports on poverty amongst this 'minority within a minority' and the role local agencies should play.
Category: Articles -
24/06/2013
‘Troubled Families’ programme expanded
The 'Troubled Families' programme in England is to be expanded, the coalition government has announced. In 2015-16, £200 million will be invested in providing intensive help to a further 400,000 high-risk families – on top of the £1 billion already committed to helping 120,000 families over the period 2010–2015. There will be new incentives for local services such as the police, health and social services to work more closely together in order to reduce costs and improve outcomes for families.
The announcement was reported as a victory for Louise Casey, the civil servant in charge of the programme, coming at a time when the coalition government is seeking to cut a further £11.5 billion from the public spending total in 2015-16.Category: News stories -
13/06/2013
Absolute poverty up nearly a million under coalition
The percentage of people living in households with an 'absolute' low income was 17 per cent (before housing costs) in 2011-12 – nearly a million higher than when the coalition government took office in 2010-11 – according to the latest official Households Below Average Income (HBAI) statistical report.
The HBAI report uses three main measures of low income/inequality:
Relative low income – where someone lives in household that receives less than 60 per cent of the average (median disposable) income in the year in question.
Absolute low income – where someone lives in household that receives less than 60 per cent of average (median disposable) income in 2010-11 adjusted since then by inflation.
Income inequality – measured by the Gini coefficient, on a scale from zero (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality).Category: Reports -
12/06/2013
NE Child Poverty Commission
The North East Child Poverty Commission brings together stakeholders including academics and organisations from the public, private and voluntary sector with the aim of building public and political support for actions that improve the lives of poor children living in the North East of England.
Category: -
05/06/2013
Child poverty ‘costing £29 billion each year’
High levels of child poverty are currently costing the country at least £29 billion each year, or £1,098 per household, according to new calculations prepared by Loughborough University for the Child Poverty Action Group.
The research updates a similar study for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2008, which found the cost of child poverty to the UK at that time to be £25 billion a year. The estimate includes the costs of policy interventions required in childhood to correct for the effects of poverty, as well as the longer-term losses to the economy resulting from reduced productivity, lower educational attainment and poorer physical and mental health.
Category: Reports -
24/05/2013
Poverty minus a pound: how the poverty consensus unravelled
Calls for the targets of the 2010 Child Poverty Act to be ditched and the role of income support downgraded are mistaken, argues Stewart Lansley.
Category: Articles -
13/05/2013
Child poverty target attacked by IPPR director
The target for eliminating child poverty by 2020, set by the previous Labour government, has been criticised as 'technocratic', over-centralised and unaffordable by Nick Pearce, director of the influential Institute for Public Policy Research think tank.
Pearce said Labour's attempt to end child poverty had been so expensive that 'it was running out of road even before 2008, never mind now'. He added: 'At the same time, [Labour's] highly centralised, even technocratic approach to tackling child poverty failed to speak to people's everyday concerns about childhood, not least those officially labelled as 'poor'. As a result, Labour struggled to secure widespread public support for its ambitions or mobilise families and communities behind them. Contrast this to the popular attachment generated for the newly created children's centres'.Category: News stories
