JRF's @KatieSchmuecker responds to details of the government's levelling up white paper:
"The Prime Minister has defined levelling up as delivering for the poorest, so this strategy should be assessed against its ability to reduce poverty across the country... ⬇️
"A focus on rising employment, pay and productivity will only succeed if it delivers better jobs and pay for people on the lowest incomes. To make this happen we need to see investment in skills, childcare, local transport and affordable housing... 💷👨🍼🚌🏠
"Plans to reform the private rented sector are long overdue and really welcome to see. If done well, they will drive up standards and strengthen tenants’ rights, creating a more just housing system... 🤝🏘️
“We welcome the wide-ranging set of missions and targets but as ever, the proof will be in the delivery.
"Local areas must be trusted to make decisions about what is best for them, and crucially must be given the investment and powers they need to achieve this... 📍💷🤝
"The lack of new funding announced today, and an approach to devolution that appears to be quite centrally controlled, suggest more needs to be done before the reality of these plans meets the rhetoric."
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A thread on the power of insight to drive change 🧵👇
Last week, as a result of @BootstrapCook's campaign on rising food prices faced by those on a low income, the @ONS restarted the publication of inflation rates by income bands
The power of her intervention was that she’d unearthed a genuinely powerful and original insight, with real implications
We’re thinking hard at JRF about the greater contribution we can make to enhancing insight about poverty independent.co.uk/life-style/jac…
More specifically, we’re doing so by starting with an ‘infrastructure’ mindset: asking how, as an independent foundation, JRF can enable and open up the generation and use of insight to support social change
❌ New measures won’t protect the poorest families from the new energy price cap
1⃣6⃣ Families on low incomes will spend on average 16% of their incomes after housing costs on energy bills. This compares to 5% for middle-income families
4⃣3⃣ Single adult households on low incomes will spend a shocking 43% on average of their income after housing costs on energy bills
2⃣2⃣ Lone parent families on low incomes will spend 22% on average of their income after housing costs on energy bills
💷⬆️ Some families on low incomes will face annual bills as high as £2,326 from April
❌For low-income families with children, the measures will mitigate just 36% of the increase in their bills on average. This compares to 59% for low-income single-adult households
"The Chancellor has offered cold comfort to families in poverty, who are already rationing what they can spend on essentials such as heating and food...
"These families are now expected to find at least half of the eye watering increases in energy bills, when many are already getting into debt to keep their houses warm and food on the table...
"Three quarters of those who can claim the enhanced support are not in poverty. Meanwhile inflation is set to rise at more than double the rate of benefits. This support will not get people through the next few months and it will not protect those most at risk of hardship...
"The rise in pensioner poverty is concerning, and we think it is being driven in part by increased housing costs, particularly for those in rented accommodation...
This year’s #UKPoverty2022 report is designed to act as the ultimate reference document for the complete picture of poverty across all its characteristics and impacts.
Here, JRF analysts share the latest data from the areas of the report they have worked on
The findings of our latest report paint a stark picture of the state of the nation going into the pandemic, with rising child and pensioner poverty, and very high poverty rates for larger families and single-parent families, as well as Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black families 📈
While we don’t yet have the official poverty data for the pandemic period, we know that the impacts of the pandemic were very uneven.
During the pandemic, people on the lowest incomes were most likely to see their earnings reduced if they were working and to get into debt 💷