Our previous study for Thomas Pocklington Trust began to look at the extra costs of living at a minimum acceptable standard for people with sight loss. It showed how for people of working age, being sight impaired adds around £49 to a minimum weekly budget. This result was for the case of someone eligible to […]
The present government has rightly drawn attention to the fact that people will be at lower risk of poverty if they work, have two parents and do not have many children. However, the translation of these realities into “behaviourist” policies – incentives to conform to certain family norms – started out more tentatively than one […]
George Osborne today took the biggest step forward since the introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in 1999 to commit the government to tackling low pay. His announcement of a “Living Wage” of £7.20, rising to £9 by 2020, was more than just a rebranding and raising of the NMW. Crucially, it was an […]
Zero inflation is great news these days for low income families. This is because more and more government policies affecting income are being set without regard to the inflation rate. If you work on the minimum wage, you can expect your pay to rise 23 per cent and tax allowance 18 per cent by 2020 […]
Over the past couple of years there have been lots of stories of families – and 30-somethings more generally – leaving London and moving to the other big cities in the UK because of the high cost of living London. Our new research sheds light on the pressures felt by families living in the capital. […]
While many costs associated with living in London are similar to the rest of the UK, a minimum decent standard of living is substantially more expensive in the capital. There is a long held view that life costs more in London. This view is not just confined to the usual suspects of housing, childcare and […]
Our research into a Minimum Income Standard for London found that a decent standard of living costs up to 50 per cent more in London than it does elsewhere in the country. These figures are based on a comparison of what groups of people in London and in other urban areas of the UK have […]
This week, billboards across the capital displayed quotes illustrating some of the personal stories underlying the quantitative patterns of migration into and out of London. Many of these billboards highlighted the financial reasons that Londoners gave for leaving the capital, with reference to people’s experiences of the high costs of living in London: In addition […]
You only have to look at this symbol … to realise how disability and its costs are prone to stereotypes. Think about the extra costs faced by disabled people and often the first thought is of the expense (often considerable) of purchasing a wheelchair or other specialised equipment. But new research that we have just […]
Despite signs of economic recovery, nearly four in ten families with children are living on incomes below what they need and making up lost ground is going to take time. Recent weeks and months have seen a growing assertion that following a long period of decline, we might just have turned a corner and 2015 […]