The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a light on what it means to experience sudden income loss, insecurity and difficulty making ends meet. It has also revealed and exacerbated the instability that many low income families already face on a regular basis. But what can be learnt in the light of responses to the pandemic? Our […]
Is this the moment to call time on Universal Credit, a decade on?
Category: Families, General, Income, Living standards, Tax credits, Uncategorised
The past week’s whirlwind of critique of Universal Credit is quite overwhelming because it brings together so many different kinds of problem, each with a large impact on the lives of low income families. Some are to do with delays people have already experienced by new claimants and the huge suffering that will cause if […]
Using the Minimum Income Standard as a criterion for fair access to justice has profound implications for its status as a national standard
Category: Consumption, Families, General, Households below MIS, Income, Living standards, Living wage, MIS
Today, the Law Society is publishing my report that asks a simple question about the way people are assessed for eligibility for civil legal aid. Can those denied full legal aid because of their income afford to pay for their own legal advice and services? The criterion for considering affordability is whether such costs can […]
I’m pleased that charities are using the Minimum Income Standard as their principal means test, but worried that they are having to fill in for failing state support
In the past couple of months, I have been talking to people in a fascinating world that most of us are at best vaguely aware of: the world of benevolent charities, who give financial help to eligible individuals in need. Many of these charities are now using our Minimum Income Standard to help them decide […]
For the less well off half of families, budgets continue to take away, not give away
Category: Families, Income, Living standards, Tax credits, Universal credit
In today’s Budget, Philip Hammond repeated the mantra that the Government wants “to help families cope with the cost of living”, and even acknowledged that short term relief from the assault on living standards needs to parallel long-term investment to improve productivity and housebuilding. But he conspicuously avoided repeating previous references to “just about managing” […]
Public policy is becoming ever more skewed in trying to focus on “deserving” groups
Category: Childcare, Consumption, Families, General, Income, Universal credit
The evidence is piling up: most people on low incomes will have been made much worse off in the course of this decade. Most depressingly, the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts that the child poverty rate, which saw a sustained fall in the New Labour years, from 34% to 27% after housing costs, will have […]
#YOLO: Millennials are buying experiences but are not necessarily better off
Category: Consumption, Income, Living standards
Millennials (individuals born between 1981 and 2000) are often portrayed as living short term and therefore spending on immediate rewards – eating out, social events, travels – rather than on investing on long-term possessions, like housing. In the end, ‘YOLO – You Only Live Once’. I am a millennial; I eat out, I go to […]
Time to start fixing the broken safety net that no longer catches struggling families
Category: Families, Income, Uncategorised
Families on low incomes are once again bearing the brunt of a tough economic environment. Over the past decade, rising costs of items such as food, energy and childcare, combined with stagnating wages and cuts in benefits, have repeatedly put a squeeze on family budgets. Between 2014 and 2016, some of these pressures eased, as […]
How the extra costs of being visually impaired in older age can add up
Category: Disability, Income, MIS
One in five people aged over 75 experience sight loss. This can be an upsetting experience in itself, but all the more daunting because of the additional cost that it brings to everyday life. When your failing vision means that you have to get help cleaning your house, or use more taxis because getting the […]
Will low income families’ ability to afford the necessities of life stop declining?
Category: Families, Income, Living wage, Uncategorised, Universal credit
The mood music on welfare cuts may finally be changing. The new Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green has explicitly sought to distance himself from the stance of the past six years by stating that there ‘will be no new search for cuts in individual welfare benefits’. The cuts of the past few years have […]