Poverty in Perspective Matt Barnes Research Director matt.barnes@natcen.ac.uk

1. Poverty in Perspective Matt Barnes Research Director matt.barnes@natcen.ac.uk

2. Rationale • Renewed impetus to understand poverty from a multidimensional perspective • Living on low income is about more than simply having insufficient money • Many poor households face multiple & different sets of problems • Analysis to understand and visualise the lived experience of poverty 2

3. Overview of methodology Demos polling - stakeholder engagement - academic literature Selecting poverty indicators Secondary analysis of Understanding Society dataset Creating poverty types Qualitative interviews with families Verifying poverty experiences Developing a toolkit to guide policy makers and practitioners Solutions for each poverty type Testing the analysis at local level Replication with local data 4

4. Analysis of Understanding Society W1 Twenty indicators applied to households with income below 70% of the median • Indicators across range of domains: • Finances • Material deprivation • Work and education • Housing • Health and well-being • Social networks • Local area 5

5. Creating poverty types Poverty types formed by the combinations of indicators that clustered most frequently for low-income households Type 1 Type 3 Higher incomes Low income Type 2 6

6. 5 child poverty types • Above 70% median income • Grafters • Full house families • Pressured parents 72% • Vulnerable mothers 72% • Managing mothers 7

7. Describing the child poverty types Grafters Likely to be in low paid work or recently made unemployed due to recession. Owner occupiers. Full-house families Tend to be very large households, containing multiple adults and young children. Managing mothers Again consisting of single parent families, they tend to be slightly older mums with older children. Most feel they are ‘getting by’. Pressured parents Living predominantly in rented properties, are extremely deprived in terms of lifestyle as well as material measures. Vulnerable mothers Consisting of single parents families and, most usually, young single mothers, they are the most deprived group. 8

8. ‘Vulnerable mothers’ • Consisting of single parents families and, most usually, young single mothers, they are the most deprived group • Material deprivation • No private transport • Workless • Deprived neighbourhood • Young mothers • With young children • Social renters 9

9. ‘Managing mothers’ • Again consisting of single parent families, they tend to be slightly older mums with older children. Most feel they are ‘getting by’ • Some with mental health problems • Some working part-time • School-aged children • Private renters • Aged 30s-40s 10

10. Implications from the research Provides rich source of data about income-poor households with different ‘experiences’ of poverty Prevents people from viewing people in poverty as a homogenous low-income group Raises awareness of, and tackles misconceptions about, people in poverty Helps guide policy makers and practitioners to target particular groups with potentially holistic and multi-agency solutions Not a new ‘measure’ of poverty… 11

11. Distinctions for the consultation Child development Poverty outcomes Later scarring effects Use: Show consequences of poverty Aspirations Bad housing Debt Well-being Characteristics of Poverty Disadvantages that can occur alongside poverty Use: Illustrate lived experience Poverty Lacking access to necessary material resources Use: Monitor progress Low income Deprivation Worklessness Drivers of Poverty Directly (indirectly) lead to poverty Use: Identify key causes/solutions Underemployment Labour market Benefit system etc Low wages Low skills Poor health 13

12. matt.barnes@natcen.ac.uk www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/podcasts/2013/09 Thank you NatCen Social Research 35 Northampton Square London EC1V 0AX 020 7250 1866 www.natcen.ac.uk www.demos.co.uk/poverty