Recent publications
This report, published with Unison, analyses the make up of the lcoal government workforce. It looks at teh long term trends in pay, finding that, for some local government workers in essential jobs,a combination of high inflation and low pay rises means that pay is no higher now than 20 years ago.
Here we look back at the record of the Labour administration and forward to the Government's Child Poverty strategy. There are clear similarities, and indications that the mistakes of the last government are being repeated by the new one.
This, the third report in the series, updates the findings from two years earlier. It looks at a range of indicators from low income, unemployment and low pay to ill health, poor educational outcomes and access to services. This year's report focuses in particular on housing, and the role high housing costs have in explaining London's high levels of poverty.
This report uses the most recent poverty figures to analyse the record over the last ten years. It looks at the changes needed to meet the Welsh Government's target of eradicating child poverty by 2020. In particular, it considers how far higher levels of parental employment might take Wales towards this goal and what this would mean.
To cut Council Tax Benefit by 10% risks damaging a very effective political safety valve. Are Coalition politicians sure this is what they want in 2013?
With some 5.8 million recipient households across Great Britain, Council Tax Benefit (CTB) is not just some minor part of the benefit system. Excluding the State Pension (entitlement based on contribution) and universal benefits like Child Benefit or the winter fuel payment for those over 60, it is in fact the benefit with most claimants of all.
The fall in child poverty in the first year of the recession shows how big an impact tax credits and benefits can make in the short term – while the rise and rise of in-work poverty shows their limitations as a long term strategy. The delay in publishing low income statistics means that we still do not have the full picture of what happened to poverty during the recession. But from what is now known, for the year up to April 2009, child poverty actually fell slightly due, in large part, to the substantial rises in Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit in April 2008.
As a device for getting money in the purses and pockets of low income families, the power of these policy instruments is self-evident. Yet with in-work poverty rising to a new record, the report shows the inadequacy of an approach that dealt with symptoms rather than causes.
This is the 2010 edition of indicators of poverty and social exclusion in Scotland. It includes a broad review of relevant Scottish policy, using the framework of Achieving our Potential, the key Scottish policy document on poverty. Although Scotland entered the recession with lower unemployment and child poverty than England, it has fared worse since.
Our recent report, updating the work we published with the Trust for London in May 2009, shows that the recession’s impact on the capital has been far from uniform. Some areas, especially Inner West London, survived the recession well, whereas many others, particularly in Outer East London saw large increases in unemployment, numbers claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA) and mortgage repossessions.
Whatever else has been driving the rise in 'welfare' spending, it is certainly not been any greater generosity in the benefits available to working-age adults. To try to ensure that political debate around this aspect of the social security system is well-informed, this briefing paper, written in collaboration with Steve Fothergill and Goretti Horgan, provides some basic facts about the five main benefits that make up, or add to, the income of workless, working-age adults.
A full list of all our publications can be accessed from the menu on the left