low income

Basic income, social justice and freedom

On 11 March 2009, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation hosted a symposium on Basic income, social justice and freedom, jointly organised with the University of York's School of Politics, Economics and Philosophy. Based on themes from the work of eminent political philosopher Philippe Van Parijs, it discussed his argument for the introduction of a basic income paid unconditionally, without work requirements or means tests.

Time and income poverty

Time and money are two key constraints on what people can achieve. The income constraint is widely recognised by policy-makers and social scientists in their concern with poverty. Proposed solutions often focus on getting people into paid work, but this risks ignoring the demands people may have on their time. This study looks at individuals who are significantly limited by time and income constraints: those who could escape income poverty only by incurring time poverty, or vice versa.

Is a not-for-profit home credit business feasible?

The seizing up of wholesale markets, combined with tightened lending criteria, has created a credit supply crisis among vulnerable borrowers, many of whom rely on home credit. Commercial home credit is long-established, with large numbers of low-income customers. It has many features that are valued by its customers, but the cost is high. This report addresses the essential elements of a not-for-profit service as identified by customers and lenders.

Ending severe child poverty

This report asks what a focus on severe child poverty adds to our understanding of child poverty and what it may suggest in terms of future strategic approaches and policy solutions With the government committed to their goal of ending child poverty by 2020 there are concerns that policy has not reached those families in the most severe poverty.

The living standards of families with children reporting low incomes

The government has high-profile child poverty targets which are assessed using a measure of income, as recorded in the Household Below Average Income series (HBAI).

However, income is an imperfect measure of living standards. Previous analysis suggests that some children in households with low income do not have commensurately low living standards.

This report aims to document the extent to which this is true, focusing on whether children in low-income households have different living standards depending on whether their parents are employed, self-employed, or workless.