Recent publications
We produce regular monitoring reports for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Trust for London. As well as looking at long standing issues such as child poverty and unemployment, these reports explore emerging and developing issues such as debt, in work poverty, and housing affordability.
Our work is not limited to poverty, however. In the last year we have published reports for UNISON on the state of the water industry and an economics paper with the Fabians discussing the different types of public and private sector surpluses.
With so much of the discussion around welfare dividing the population into those who work and those who claim benefits, this paper sets out the facts on the number of working families receiving benefits. We estimate that some 4.3m working families receive at least one of the benefits in our analysis, with some three quarters of these receiving tax credits. The report looks at the numbers of working families receiving different types of benefits, and the characteristics of these families.
This paper is a compilation of blogs written in April in response to the welfare reforms to be introduced in the 2013/14 year. Each article looks at particular reform from the point of view that it was not enough to oppose the reforms simply because they hit the poor.
This table is an updated version of one that appeared in the Appendix of Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK 2012. It lists the benefit changes announced in the last five years and, where possible, specifies how many people are expected to be affected and how much the average loss is likely to be.
In this report, produced with Unison, we look at different aspects of the water industry since privatisation. Domestic water bills have risen much faster than inflation, yet the industry lacks the money to make substantial investments in infrastructure. We look at the structure of the industry, the high levels of profits and dividends and ask whether this is what a responsible water industry looks like.
This paper looks at how many families will be affected by one or more of the benefit cuts that are introduced from April 2013. Government estimates so far have only dealt with the scope and depth of each cut on its own. Our research finds that 2.6 million families (8% of families in the UK) are affected by at least one of the three absolute benefit cuts and just under half a million families are affected by more than one.
The impact of localising council tax benefit
The replacement of Council Tax Benefit (CTB) with Council Tax Support (CTS) marks a historic move from a nationally devised system to one of 326 different local schemes in England. This restructuring, along with a 10 per cent cut in funding, will create considerable challenges for local authorities, advice services and benefit recipients alike.
This report looks back over the last decade at trends in low income, unemployment and health inequalities in Scotland. It finds real improvements in pensioner and child poverty but a worrying growth in youth unemployment. The gap in life expectancy poor areas and rich areas is stark, and on some measures health inequalities are growing. The report also looks ahead to the referendum on independence, and the impact of welfare reforms in Scotland.
Our most recent report for the Joseph Rowntree looks at the current trends and patterns in poverty across the UK. Using official data, it covers a range of indicators including low income, ill health, homelessness and low educational outcomes. This year's report includes a set of indicators that go back as far as the 1940s, as shows how long term trends can help us understand current changes. It also focuses on the impact of welfare reform, looking at the people who will be hit several times over by changes to the benefits system.
Localising Council Tax Support: a briefing note on local authorities' plans
In April 2013, English local authorities will begin their own schemes of ‘council tax support’ (CTS) to replace the existing national scheme of council tax benefit (CTB). The new schemes will receive 10% less funding from central government than CTB. This briefing paper summarises the main features of the prospective CTS schemes that councils have so far put out for consultation.
This report for the Fabian Society identifies persistent and excessive business saving as a key factor underpinning Britain’s current economic woes and recommends the next Labour government adopt a new fiscal rule seeking to reduce both the public sector deficit and the corporate sector surplus.
This study looks at how we measure affordability and which older people, in a society were the state provides a minimum income to pensioners, can and can not afford to live in retirement housing.
This study moves the debate on older people's housing away from simplistic notions about 'holding onto housing' to wider questions about choice and demand.
Edmonton is an area in the London Borough of Enfield with some of the most deprived wards in London. The Borough commissioned us to look at the population and demography of the area, and the barriers to finding work local people face. We also looked at ways in which the council itself could help people and businesses ensure that regeneration projects helped the local population.
A follow up to our 2009 publication, this report looks at what has changed in Northern Ireland in the short and medium term. Using the most up to date statistics on low income, education, worklessness and benefit claims, it paints a picture of Northern Ireland stuck between the huge job losses of the of the recession and the forthcoming effects of welfare reform and public sector cuts.
Market Assessment of Housing Options for Older People
This report, produced for Shelter and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, looks at current and future provision of housing for older people. It shows that the traditional perception of housing for older people is at odds with how older people actually live. In order to meet the demands of the growing population of older people, developers and policy makers will need to broaden their ideas of what older people actually look for in housing.
Poverty and the Big Society
This pamphlet aims to stimulate debate within the voluntary and community sector about the ‘Big Society’ and its potential for delivering greater social justice and reducing poverty. It comes at a time where it appears that the 'social justice' version of the Big Society is drifting away, while the ‘smaller state’ version is coming to the fore.
A full list of all our publications can be accessed from the menu on the left