INSPIRING SOCIAL CHANGE

1. INSPIRING SOCIAL CHANGE

2. Poverty in the UK Chris Goulden Policy & Research 28 November 2013

3. Background • JRF publishes an annual review of progress made in fighting poverty and other forms of exclusion in the UK • Range of indicators from low income & worklessness to ill health and homelessness • Uses official statistics & datasets – retrospective • 2013 report due out on Sunday 8 December • Monitoring Coalition’s agenda on poverty and exclusion Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

4. What I’m talking about… • Poverty and incomes • different risks by age group • Employment and low pay • Impacts of welfare reform Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

5. Poverty and incomes • In 2011/12, 13 million people living in poverty in the UK • For the first time, more than half in a working family • Pensioner poverty is at its lowest for almost 30 years • For working-age adults withoutchildren, poverty is the highest on record • Average incomes have fallen by 8% since their 2008 peak • 2mpeople have household incomes below the 2008 poverty line but not considered to be in poverty today Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

6. Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

7. Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

8. Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

9. Employment and low pay • Labour market showing signs of revival • Underemployment fallen slightly to 6.3m • Young adult unemployment peaked at 21% • More people in low-paid jobs • Around 5 million people paid below the Living Wage • Churn in and out of work is substantial • 4.8m different people have claimed JSA in last 2 years Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

10. Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

11. Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

12. Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

13. Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

14. Social security • Reduction in incomes for many on means-tested benefits • Doubling of sanctioned jobseekers to 800,000 • Cuts big and small erode benefits • Affecting those in and out of work • Benefits for an out-of-work adult without children are 40% of what the public say is a minimum standard of living • Families with children = 60% • National averages mask huge variations between areas in • Unemployment • FSM and educational achievement • Life expectancy Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

15. Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

16. Welfare changes since 2012 Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

17. Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

18. Conclusions • The Good • Unemployment and underemployment falling • Headline poverty measure down • Improving educational attainment (but a fixed gap) • The Bad • The fall in poverty has to be qualified • 2 years of falling average incomes (and poverty line) • Many worse off than 5 years ago • Since 2011/12, further falls in real wages and the real value of benefits Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion

19. Conclusions • The Ugly • Poverty is broader and, for some, more severe • More now living on incomes below the value of out-of-work benefits (far lower than the poverty line) • More jobseekers being sanctioned • Private renters facing stricter caps on LHA • Social renters paying under-occupancy penalty • Low-income families paying Council Tax • Welfare reform is by no means the solution to poverty but current changes are making poverty worse • Positive labour market developments do not ‘balance’ the squeeze on incomes of the poorest Monitoring Poverty & Social Exclusion