The thinktank Demos has launched Poverty in Perspective, an indepth analysis of the lived experience of poverty in the UK, working with data sets from Understanding Society – the UK’s largest household panel survey, based at ISER.
The report is the culmination of an 18-month long project, led
by Demos, in partnership with NatCen and supported by the
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, to create a new model to understand
poverty in a multi-dimensional way.
The report’s authors state
“This new model is unlike other multi-dimensional
measures or analyses as we have applied a set of 20 indicators
to those with incomes below 70 per cent of the median in a
large household panel study (Understanding Society: The
UK Household Longitudinal Study, which covers 40,000 UK
households1 ) and identified which combinations of indicators
cluster most frequently together. We are not redefining
poverty, or measuring it in a new way that replaces the existing
income benchmark. Instead, we are applying a new model of
analysis to the low-income population (using an existing
income-based poverty line) to better understand the lived
experience of poverty and generate new insights into how to
tackle it.”
“We are now able to describe 15 distinct types of poverty
within the low-income population, characterised by a unique
interaction of 20 indicators across three cohorts: households
with and without children, and pensioner households.
We have generated a rich source of data about different
groups living in poverty, based on their lived experience,
which could prove extremely helpful in guiding policymakers
and practitioners in thinking in a more nuanced way about
those who live in poverty (rather than considering them a
homogeneous group). Our analysis should also prompt more
holistic and multi-agency solutions (based on an understanding
of multiple factors) regarding how each group might be helped
out of the distinct type of poverty they face.”