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 • Promote tailored policy solutions • Analysis based only on income might prompt income-based solutions only 2

3. Poverty in Perspective • NatCen & Demos collaboration • Funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation • How we did the research • What we found • Implications • Relating the research to the consultation • on measuring child poverty www.demos.co.uk/poverty 3

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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

9. ‘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

10. ‘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

11. Implications from the research Provides rich source of data about different groups living in 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

12. Government consultation on better measures of child poverty • Consultation launched in Nov 2012 • Not keen on relative income as measure of child poverty • Want multidimensional measure that reflects living in poverty • Mentions possible indicators such as: • Worklessness • Problem debt • Poor housing or troubled area • Unstable family environment • Government due to report on consultation after the summer? • Attends failing school • Parents with low skills • Parents with poor health 12

13. 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

14. Multidimensional measures of poverty drivers? • Official child poverty indicators already have a multidimensional measure: • Relative low income • Absolute low income • Multidimensional measure of poverty drivers? • Worklessness, low earnings, low hours, low skills, poor health, family commitments (caring, young/many children) etc • Those with more drivers likely to be most at risk? • Particular combinations of drivers at high risk? • Segment poverty population to improve targeting? • Persistent low income • Low income & Material deprivation 14

15. Further research • Understanding dynamics: • What factors are associated with entering a poverty type? • How do disadvantages accumulate? • How long do people stay in a poverty type for? • What factors are associated with exiting a poverty type? • Where do people exit to? Can this research be replicated with local area data? Creating indicators of poverty drivers? 15

16. 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