Research into rise in people living on low incomes

A DECADE after the economic downturn, two million more people than in 2008 are on incomes too low to secure a living standard considered an acceptable minimum by the British public, according to new research from Loughborough University’s Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP).

For some groups, there has been an improvement since 2013, but others continue to face very challenging circumstances.

The research shows that nearly three quarters of lone parent families have too little income to meet their minimum needs. It also shows that for single women in their early 60s, the raising of the age at which they can draw their pension has resulted in a doubling of the proportion below the minimum since 2008, from one in five to two in five women in this group.

These are the latest findings of the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) programme of research, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and carried out at Loughborough University. The MIS research calculates the minimum budget individuals require to cover their material needs and to participate in society, according to what groups of members of the public say you need.

The figures show how many people lived in households below the MIS level in 2016/17 (the latest income data) compared to 2008/09.

The group that have seen the biggest reduction since 2013 in the numbers below the minimum have been working age adults without children. The proportion below MIS fell from around 30 per cent to 25 per cent in this more recent period, reaching the same level as it was in 2008. Some of this group have been helped by the Government’s introduction of the National Living Wage, encouraged by the Living Wage campaign which uses the MIS research as a benchmark.