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 2

3. Overview of methodology Demos polling - stakeholder engagement - academic literature Selecting poverty indicators 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 Secondary analysis of Understanding Society dataset Creating poverty types 4

4. 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

5. Creating poverty types Poverty types formed by the combinations of indicators that clustered most frequently for low-income households Higher incomes Low income Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 6

6. 5 child poverty types 72% Above 70% median income Grafters Full house families Pressured parents Vulnerable mothers Managing mothers 72% 7

7. Describing the child poverty types Full-house families Tend to be very large households, containing multiple adults and young children. Grafters Likely to be in low paid work or recently made unemployed due to recession. Owner occupiers. 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. Managing mothers Again consisting of single parent families, they tend to be slightly older mums with older children. Most feel they are ‘getting by’. 8

8. ‘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

9. ‘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

10. Implications from the research 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 Provides rich source of data about income-poor households with different ‘experiences’ of poverty Not a new ‘measure’ of poverty… 11

11. Distinctions for the consultation Poverty Lacking access to necessary material resources Use: Monitor progress Drivers of Poverty Directly (indirectly) lead to poverty Use: Identify key causes/solutions Poverty outcomes Later scarring effects Use: Show consequences of poverty Low income Deprivation Worklessness Underemployment Low wages Low skills Poor health Child development Aspirations Well-being Debt Characteristics of Poverty Disadvantages that can occur alongside poverty Use: Illustrate lived experience Bad housing Labour market Benefit system etc 13

12. Thank you NatCen Social Research 35 Northampton Square London EC1V 0AX 020 7250 1866 www.natcen.ac.uk matt.barnes@natcen.ac.uk www.demos.co.uk/poverty www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/podcasts/2013/09