Jonathan Bradshaw

Overlaps in Dimensions of Poverty

The Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey of Britain made it possible first time to explore poverty using three different measures applied at the same time on the same sample. The measures were: lacking socially perceived necessities; being subjectively poor and having a relatively low income. These approaches are all commonly used to identify the poor and to measure poverty but rarely if ever in combination. In this article we have found that there is little overlap in the group of people defined as poor by these dimensions. There are reasons for this lack of overlap, connected to the reliability and validity of the different measures. However the people who are defined as living in poverty by different measures of poverty are different. This inevitably means that the policy response to poverty will be different depending on which measure is employed. We have attempted to analyse overlap in two ways. First, by exploring the dimensions of poverty cumulatively, we have found that, the more dimensions people are poor on, the more they are unlike the non-poor and the poor on only one dimension, in their characteristics and in their social exclusion. Second, by treating particular dimensions as meriting more attention than others, we explored three permutations of this type and concluded that, while each permutation were more unlike the non-poor than those poor on a single dimension, they were not as unlike the non-poor as the cumulatively poor were. These results indicate that accumulation might be a better way of using overlapping measures of poverty than by giving priority to one dimension over another. The implication of the paper is that it is not safe to rely on one measure of poverty – the results obtained are just not reliable enough. Surveys, such as the Family Resources Survey or the European Community Household Panel, which are used to monitor the prevalence of poverty, need to be adapted to enable results to be triangulated – to incorporate a wider range of poverty measures.

Lone parents, poverty and policy in the European Union:

Although there is considerable research evidence to show that children in lone parent families are at increased risk of poverty, there have been few comparative analyses of lone parents in Europe. Using the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2009, this paper compares the prevalence and characteristics of lone parent families, analyses the poverty and deprivation risks of children, and evaluates the potential impact of social transfer income packages on child poverty reduction. We use the unique personal identifiers of mothers, fathers and partners to define lone parent families with greater precision. Using a multi-level framework, we find lower child poverty rates in countries with more generous social transfers, even after controlling for the country standard of living. A reverse pattern is observed for material deprivation: the negative effect of social transfer income washes out when the GDP per capita is controlled for, which itself has a negative and significant effect on material deprivation.

Evaluating Adequacy: The Potential of Budget Standards

Since Beveridge, budget standards have been neglected in British social policy research. Empirical effort has been concentrated on developing social indicator methods of investigating relative poverty. This paper explores the potential of budget standards for assessing whether the scale rates of supplementary benefit are adequate. Three applications of budget standard methodology are presented.

75,000 SEVERELY DISABLED CHILDREN

This article explores the epidemiological potential of the computerised record of applications to the Family Fund, which contains details of75,000 children with severe disabilities in the UK. It illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the record, with an analysis of variation in the characteristics of the children and their families by principal handicapping conditions.

How Has the Notion of Social Exclusion Developed in the European Discourse

This paper reflects on the development of the idea of social exclusion in European and particularly in British discourses. When it first emerged, social exclusion seemed to add to little to poverty and in some guises carried a great deal of behaviourist ideological baggage, or blamed the poor. Over time, however, experience in the UK has shown that social exclusion has broadened the research agenda and opened up new possibilities for policy. This paper contributes to these debates by presenting new estimates of poverty and exclusion in Britain using data from the Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey. The estimates confirm that poverty and exclusion are related, but distinct concepts. There remains the question of whether social exclusion has not entered official discussions in Australia as a result of a ‘Howard effect’ or because of some more fundamental resistance in the Australian political — and academic — culture.

Prevalence and characteristics of disabled children: findings from the 1974 General Household Survey.

In the absence of nationally representative data on the prevalence of disability among children, a special analysis of relevant data in the General Household Survey (GHS) was carried out. A long-standing illness, disability or infirmity was present in 7.6% of the children under 16 in the 1974 sample of the GHS. An assessment of the extent to which the children were disabled resulted in 10% of the children being classified as severe, 29% as moderate, and 61% as mild. About half of the children classified as severe had a congenital anomaly or suffered from a mental disorder. Prevalence rates for specific conditions were compared with those obtained in other studies. Compared with all children in the survey, significantly more of the severely and moderately disabled children were boys than girls, and significantly more came from the skilled manual socioeconomic groups. The proportion of lone parent families was not significantly different from that in the overall sample.

Evaluating the Malaise inventory: A comparison of measures of stress

The Malaise Inventory developed by Rutter and his colleagues has been widely used to measure the level of stress experienced by mothers of severely disabled children. The results obtained using the Inventory in a survey of 210 mothers with a disabled child are compared with two alternative measures of stress: a scale of symptoms and the taking of medication related to mental health. Most of the Inventory items and the malaise score--the total number of items reported--are moderately correlated with the other measures of stress. The results obtained from two successive surveys of the sample are compared to check the consistency of the findings.

Social policy options and fuel poverty

Abstract The concept of ‘fuel poverty’, the inability to afford adequate warmth at home has become a focus for social policies in recent years. Increasing numbers of households dependent on social security and the likelihood that fuel will become more expensive mean that the existing problem of fuel poverty may become even greater. The data on fuel expenditure and related variables from three national surveys are used to evaluate various policy options for relieving fuel poverty. Three policies for increasing incomes to pay for fuel costs are considered, increasing benefits, introducing a fuel allowance or extending the existing scheme of additional heating requirements. The policies for reducing fuel expenditure are also considered, restructuring tariffs, changing payment methods and conservation measures. The case is made for priority to be given to an advice and information campaign and a conservation programme aimed at poor households who are unable to respond to existing price signals and grants.

Water poverty in england and Wales

Water poverty is conventionally defined as households spending more than 3% and 5% of their net income after housing costs on water. Water bills have risen faster than general prices and faster than earnings since privatisation. In 2009/10, 23.6% of households paying for water in England and Wales were spending more than 3% of their income on water and sewerage and 11.5% were spending more than 5% of their income. The article explores variation in water poverty and prospects for the future. If water bills rise 1% per year faster than household income, water poverty will increase to 35% by 2033 based on a 3% definition. Policy options are discussed.

Child Benefit Packages in 15 Countries in 2004

The book explores the implications of changes to the welfare state for children in a range of countries. Children, Changing Families and Welfare States: examines the implications of social policies for children; sets the discussion in the broader context of both family change and welfare state change, exploring the nature of the policy debate that has allowed the welfare of the child to come to the fore; tackles policies to do with both the care and financial support of children; looks at the household level and how children fare when both adult men and women must seek to combine paid and unpaid work, and what support is offered by welfare states; and endeavours to provide a comparative perspective on these issues.