Poverty In The UK Research Articles

Structural inequalities exposed by COVID-19 in the UK: the need for an accounting for care

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a reflective account of inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK and the need for an accounting for care to address them.Design/methodology/approachA commentary on COVID-19 in the UK and the societal inequalities it has exposed.FindingsEntrenched societal inequalities relating to age, health, poverty, disability, race and gender in the UK are highlighted through the experience of COVID-19.Research limitations/implicationsAccounting research has a further role to play in exposing inequalities, promoting enhanced measures for inequalities, promoting care and transforming society.Originality/valueThis paper is a unique account and personal viewpoint.

Still bleeding: The variegated geographies of austerity and food banking in rural England and Wales

This paper builds on a nascent literature on rural austerity to explore the variegated geographies of austerity and food banking in rural areas of England and Wales. The paper makes three key contributions. First, drawing on a range of existing and newly updated datasets on local authority spending power and service spending, changes to welfare benefits, benefit sanctions, and local welfare assistance schemes we use the Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2011 Rural-Urban Classification of Local Authorities to provide the first comprehensive analysis of austerity in rural England and Wales. We outline the variegated nature of rural austerity and examine the ways in which new geographies of austerity are overwriting and compounding problems of rural poverty in the UK. Second, we combine newly available data from the Trussell Trust and Independent Food Aid Network to outline a geography of food banking in rural England and Wales, highlighting the uneven distribution of food aid across rural areas and discuss some of the problems rural locations pose to both those seeking and providing food aid. Third, drawing on interviews with food bank managers, volunteers and clients in two very different rural areas we examine how different rural contexts produce different experiences of and responses to poverty and food insecurity, paying particular attention to localised cultures of charity, welfare and deservingness. We conclude by setting out a new research agenda around which scholars might further explore the relationships between austerity, food insecurity and food banking in rural areas. • First comprehensive study of austerity in rural England and Wales. • Austerity compounds problems of rural poverty. • Examines the unique challenges facing people experiencing food insecurity in rural areas. • Uneven geography of food banking in rural England and Wales. • Different ‘food bank scenes’ shape the experience of and responses to food insecurity in different rural places.

Reducing inequalities in child health: a case study in an English local authority

Abstract Background Many health outcomes for children and young people in England, UK remain poor compared to international peers, with persistent inequalities across the country. Our study sought to understand, from the perspectives of local stakeholders, the key factors affecting the development and implementation of policy to improve child health and reduce inequalities. Methods We carried out a detailed case study in an English local authority area. Our fieldwork comprised: documentary review of local policies, observation of key strategic and operational meetings and semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders. We followed Jessop's (2016) approach in using specific policy areas and policies (mental health, obesity and the early years) as 'entry points' to understand the local context. Results First, and most importantly, there was an overriding consensus that local action to reduce inequalities in child health is hampered by a persistent unequal distribution of the social determinants of health. Second, local stakeholders highlighted the damaging impact of austerity measures and poverty in the UK, which, they argued, had impacted most upon the most vulnerable. Third, while national policies often provided a framework and incentive for local action, there was an emphasis on the importance of local knowledge and place-based approaches, developed through close work with communities. Conclusions Our study highlights the need for progressive policies to begin to reduce the uneven distribution of the social determinants of health to enable local stakeholders to make progress in tackling inequalities in child health. It emphasises the futility of funding national policies to improve child health and reduce inequalities in the context of greatly reduced budgets for local authorities. National policy should also facilitate the mobilisation of context specific knowledge, produced in conjunction with community members. Key messages Our work evidences the pressing need to address structural inequalities and adequately resource and facilitate work to reduce inequalities at a local level. National policy should facilitate the mobilisation of context specific knowledge, produced in conjunction with community members.

Double energy vulnerability: Spatial intersections of domestic and transport energy poverty in England

Double energy vulnerability (DEV) is the increased likelihood of negative impacts upon well-being, owing to the intersection of domestic energy poverty (DEP) and transport energy poverty (TEP). Whilst considerable research has focused on the geography of DEP, similar issues of transport-related energy costs have received less attention, reflecting entrenched disciplinary and sectoral boundaries. This is despite transport accounting for a high proportion of household energy consumption and expenditure amongst specific vulnerable populations and locales. Meanwhile, owing to the prevalence of fossil fuels in domestic and transport energy, both are affected by changes in fuel prices. Subsequently, selected households face high expenditure on both domestic and transport energy. Focusing on a case study of England, this paper analyses the geographical distribution of DEP and TEP, and the extent to which the two intersect. Two neighbourhood-scale analyses shed light on the geographies of DEV, using three existing DEP and TEP indicators. Firstly, we identify significant clusters of neighbourhoods with a high or low propensity to DEV using a Local Moran’s I statistic. Secondly, we identify neighbourhoods in the highest and lowest quantiles for multiple DEP and TEP indicators. Our results illustrate that as many as 6% of neighbourhoods (accounting for 3 million residents) have a high propensity towards DEV depending on the indicators selected, typically concentrating in isolated, rural neighbourhoods. We discuss our findings in light of the role that lack of access to networked energy and transport infrastructures plays in aggravating energy poverty in both domains. The findings support a cross-sectoral policy approach to tackle the issue of DEV.

Struggling for food in a time of crisis: Responsibility and paradox.

Struggling for food in a time of crisis: responsibility and paradox. Responsibility is a useful lens through which to examine the current state of food poverty in the UK in the context of the Covid‐19 crisis, noting that this concept contains several paradoxes. Currently, responsibility involves the voluntary sector, the food industry and the state, a situation which the author has been exploring for the last five years in an ethnographic study of food poverty and food aid in the UK. Food aid organizations, especially food banks, have mushroomed during the period of austerity. This reveals the first paradox: namely, that the existence of food banks conveys the message that ‘something is being done’, but in actuality this is very far from being sufficient to meet the needs of either the ‘old’ or ‘new’ food insecure. The second paradox is that at the onset of the crisis, a government which had been responsible for inflicting austerity on the country for 10 years, dramatically reversed some of its policies. However, predictably, this did not change the situation vis‐à‐vis food insecurity. The third paradox is that the frequent rhetoric invoking the two world wars has not resulted in lessons being learned – notably, the creation of a ministry to deal with food and rationing, as in the Second World War. The final paradox relates to Brexit and its likely deleterious effects on food security, particularly if no ‘deal’ is achieved with the European Union, as seems likely. The voluntary food aid sector, try as it may, cannot possibly assume responsibility for the long‐standing and now hugely increased problems of food insecurity. That belongs to the state.

The Alston Report on extreme poverty and human rights in the UK: a review

The Alston Report on extreme poverty and human rights in the UK: a review

The effect of tobacco and alcohol consumption on poverty in the United Kingdom.

Tobacco and alcohol use are major risk factors for premature mortality and morbidity. Tobacco and alcohol expenditure may also exacerbate poverty. This study aimed to estimate the financial impact of tobacco and alcohol consumption in low income households in the United Kingdom. We undertook a cross-sectional study using a secondary dataset. A sample of 5031 households participated in the 2016-17 Living Costs and Food Survey. Measurements We measured the weekly household income and expenditure on tobacco and alcohol, and the proportion of households with expenditure on tobacco and alcohol overall, by income decile and in households in relative poverty (below 60% of the median household income). Estimates were extrapolated using population data to estimate the number of UK households, adults and children that would be classified as living in relative poverty on the basis of net income after subtracting tobacco or alcohol expenditure ('tobacco and alcohol expenditure-adjusted poverty'). Spending on alcohol was more common in high income groups; 83% of households in the highest and 47% in the lowest income decile purchased alcohol. The reverse was true for tobacco, which was purchased by 8% and 24% of households in the highest and lowest income deciles respectively. Twenty-three percent of households in relative poverty purchased tobacco and 49% alcohol, with a median expenditure of £12.50 and £9.55 per week, respectively. A total of 320 000 households comprising 590 000 adults and 175 000 children were in alcohol expenditure-adjusted poverty, and 230 000 households, comprising 400 000 adults and 180 000 children in tobacco-expenditure adjusted poverty. Tobacco and alcohol expenditure appear to exacerbate poverty in low income households in the United Kingdom. Hundreds of thousands of additional households would be defined as living in relative poverty based on their income after subtracting their tobacco and alcohol expenditure.

How Poor is Poor? A novel look at multidimensional poverty in the UK

The integrated nature of well-being produces difficulty in evaluating poverty levels and one issue is the neglected of human life aspects, multiple feedback loops, and an over-emphasis on income. In the light of current structural changes a multidimensional poverty measure (MPI), which includes some of those missing dimensions, closely related to the well-being of individuals, is constructed in this paper. Using data from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey, this paper provides a fresh insight into the analysis of multidimensional poverty in the United Kingdom. One of the distinctive feature of the study is the use of polychoric factor loadings to estimate dimensional weights of the MPI, in addition to more arbitrary weighting schemes. This technique consists of a coherent hierarchy of principles, to verify which of the many acknowledged dimensions of poverty hold both theoretical and practical importance. Findings indicate that, the MPI is highly consistent with the conventional measures of poverty and multidimensional poverty has decreased over the period of examination.

Neighbourhood gentrification, displacement, and poverty dynamics in post‐recession England

AbstractA recent “return to the city” by middle‐class professionals in England, with the increasing “suburbanisation” of poverty and an ongoing housing crisis, has increased the salience of concerns about neighbourhood gentrification via the involuntary displacement of established working class residents. This paper reports a systematic analysis of gentrification and income poverty in England that adopts innovative methodological approaches: a multivariate index of gentrification, propensity score matching to establish a comparison group, and sensitivity testing with respect to different “gentrification” definitions. The paper investigates three possible theoretical processes that could have driven the observed decline in income poverty rates in gentrifying areas: inward mobility to areas, outward mobility from areas, and in situ changes in poverty status. The post‐recession period 2010–2014 is studied using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. There is good evidence from aggregate and individual‐level analyses for a relationship between “inward” mobility, poverty status, and area gentrification. In addition, people moving to gentrifying areas were more likely to have a university degree and more likely to be in the professional occupational class than people who moved to nongentrifying comparison areas. On the other hand, no such relationships are found for “outward” mobility. The strongest evidence is found for “exclusionary displacement” (the restricted ability of low‐income households to move in to an area) rather than “direct displacement” (increased outward mobility of existing residents) as the dominant driver of gentrification in this period.

Reducing poverty and food insecurity in the UK

With child poverty increasing year on year, a recent House of Lords evidence session of the Select Committee on Food, Poverty, Health and Environment asked how healthy, sustainable food can be made accessible for the most vulnerable families

The validity of the index of vulnerable homes: evidence from consumers vulnerable to energy poverty in the UK

ABSTRACT Energy poverty is a multidimensional issue, and this means that it is difficult to understand the different levels of vulnerability to this phenomenon and its relationship with households’ quality of life. This paper presents the validation of an innovative index for the analysis of vulnerability to energy poverty according to monetary, energy, and thermal comfort factors: The Index of Vulnerable Homes (IVH). The IVH goes beyond the use of single self-reported indicators of thermal comfort, and instead uses the adaptive thermal-comfort model defined in the normative UNE EN 15251:2007 to assess thermal comfort in relation to energy poverty. Furthermore, it has the potential to evaluate the societal impacts of current energy poverty policies by providing the economic analysis of different situations of vulnerability. The IVH is validated by comparing its results to those obtained from a survey conducted in a small-scale study undertaken in Salford, UK. To this end, evidence from households living in terraced houses built before 1980 is used to analyze health status in terms of vulnerability to energy poverty vulnerability according to their monetary situation and the characteristics of the dwelling. In the end, the results show good agreement between both the IVH’s assessment and households’ evidence, leading to consider the IVH as a suitable approach to understanding different levels of vulnerability to energy poverty.

Voluntary sector responses to food poverty: responding in the short term and working for longer-term change

In this paper I respond to the question of whether voluntary sector responses to food poverty in the UK are a sticking plaster without addressing the causes of food poverty. I do so by drawing on a case study of a holiday hunger project and I reflect on three principles: being relational, encouraging participation and working for justice. I conclude with three recommendations for how voluntary sector organisations can work towards both short- and longer-term responses to food poverty.

Twitter conversations about food poverty: an analysis supplemented with Google Trends analysis

BackgroundAlthough the UK has not routinely collected national data on household food insecurity, the United Nations estimates that 8·4 million people in the UK experience food insecurity, a point emphasised by UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston. With the use of novel and mixed methods we explored current topics, communications, and characteristics of social media networks on food poverty posted on Twitter. Our research questions were: what discussions were taking place on Twitter related to food poverty within the specified time? What hashtags, words, and websites were the most mentioned related to food poverty? What word-pair groups emerged by social analysis? MethodsWe used NodeXL Pro software to collect tweets sent between Nov 28 and Nov 30, 2018, using the phrase food poverty. This temporal range controlled for variables associated with food poverty, notably school-aged children and holiday periods, as we used Twitter's free public application programming interface (API) limit of 18 000 tweets and search range of 9 days. We analysed and visualised our data using social and semantic analysis tools such as overall graph metrics, vertex degree, vertex betweenness and closeness centralities, words and word pairs, and Network top items graph metrics. We also explored the spatiotemporal trends associated with this phrase using Google Trends. FindingsWe identified 4843 Twitter users whose recent tweets contained the term food poverty. There was 6039 tweets and connections in our network including 376 unique tweets, 3576 retweets, 1625 mentions, and 462 replies. The users shared information related to the existence of food poverty in the UK. Conversations included the growing numbers of foodbanks, welfare reforms, and Universal Credit as the cause of this problem. Google Trends indicated the highest degree of interest for food poverty search queries was related to New Zealand, followed by the UK and USA. Philip Alston was also the highest search term trend in the UK during this time. InterpretationThis research provides a snapshot of conversations about food poverty on Twitter. The themes we obtained indicate a lack of acknowledgment of food poverty in terms of both social policy and public health in the UK. Capturing and analysing social communications using this approach has highlighted increasing public awareness of food poverty. FundingTeesside University.

Comparative analysis of rural poverty and inequality in the UK and the US

Scholars on both sides of the Atlantic have grappled with the difficulties of conducting comparative research on rural issues in general, and on rural poverty and inequality in particular. Shortall and Warner have observed that “The UK-US dialog is highly illustrative of how seemingly similar situations turn out to be full of complexity and difference.” That complexity and difference can serve to turn researchers away from comparative collaborations. We begin our paper with an overview of some of the general differences (and similarities) between how rural scholars in the UK and US have examined poverty and inequality in rural areas. Analysis of the two welfare regimes in these countries provides the backdrop for examining specific aspects of deprivation for rural people and communities. Our paper draws on our experience as members of a trans-Atlantic research group to illustrate the type of organisational infrastructure that can support international, interdisciplinary collaboration. We conclude by offering suggestions for future comparative research. Our paper progresses earlier debates in rural studies on the challenges of doing comparative US-UK analysis.

Tangled narratives of poverty in early childhood: othering, work, welfare and ‘curveballs’

Early years practitioners are integral to government policy on addressing child poverty in the UK. Drawing on findings from a qualitative study this paper seeks to contribute new understandings about how practitioners’ narratives are shaped by discourses of poverty. Overall practitioners’ understandings of poverty reflected a moral discourse of deserving and undeserving poor. However, the complexity of interconnections between morality, gender and motherhood (and fatherhood) reveals how understandings were also broad, nuanced and at times contradictory. The study highlights the need for further research into how understandings of poverty are formed together with the need for new narratives of poverty.

Medical students: privilege faced with poverty.

Growing up rich in poverty-stricken Malawi, I wanted for nothing. A white female, I was unhindered by lack of money, lack of education, language barriers, violence, poor health, gender, ethnicity, or religion, and I was somewhat aware of this privilege. I attended excellent schools, was loved by my family, and, as the crowning jewel of my secondary education, attained a place at a British medical school where I was confronted with and shocked by poverty in the UK. I sought to understand inequality here, where it seemed there was the means for universal prosperity. This took me to prisons, brothels, centres for impoverished families, and onto kerbstones with the homeless. In prison, I met torturers and murderers, but never someone whose story didn’t make sense. I wonder if I had grown up sexually abused in a care home, with a father who ‘taught me to box’ before I could walk, whether I too would join a gang, or …

Troubling Discourses of Poverty in Early Childhood in the UK

Poverty in early childhood is pervasive, affecting every aspect of children’s lives. Under current government policies child poverty in the UK is predicted to rise to 40 per cent by 2022. Dominant discourses of poverty have historically focussed on an over‐arching discourse of moral responsibility, essentially relating to notions of deserving and underserving poor. This paper examines how government policy continues to significantly impact on young children and families on low incomes in early childhood and how stigmatised discourses about welfare, work are pervasive. It is argued that discourses of redistribution and children’s rights deserve greater recognition if poverty is to be addressed.

Coalition – creation – church

Taking the recent UN Report about extreme poverty in the UK as a point of departure, this article analyses and assesses William Cavanaugh’s political ecclesiology. Drawing on the interpretation of Martin Luther’s concept of creation in Scandinavian Creation Theology, I argue that creation destabilises the distinction Cavanaugh draws between what he considers to be church and what he considers not to be church. I account for creation as a web of vulnerability in which all creatures are vulnerable to both creature and creator. In contrast to Cavanaugh’s strong and stable church, I advocate for what I call “coalitional church”: a church that can enter into coalitions with Christians and non-Christians in order to call for conditions under which vulnerable life is liveable. The public and political task of churches is not necessarily to fight the state, but to hold the state accountable to its citizens, whether they are Christian or non-Christian.

Health inequality implications from a qualitative study of experiences of poverty stigma in Scotland

RationaleIndividuals living in Scotland's most deprived communities experience a higher burden of morbidity and early mortality than those living in more affluent areas. Experiences of poverty-based stigma may be one psychosocial mechanism through which socioeconomic position influences health, although there is little available data on this issue from a Scottish perspective. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to identify which aspects of poverty stigma are particularly salient to individuals with lived experience of poverty, and may therefore contribute to health inequalities. MethodsFive focus groups were conducted with 39 individuals with experience of living on low incomes in Scotland in order to explore their experiences and perceptions of poverty stigma. ResultsFive main themes were identified, reflecting aspects of poverty stigma operating at various structural, public and individual levels: media representations of poverty; negative encounters with social security systems; perceived public attitudes regarding poverty in Scotland; lowered self-esteem and internalisation of negative attitudes, and; emotional responses to stigma. ConclusionThese dimensions of stigma potentially influence public health and health inequalities in Scotland, although future research will be necessary to quantify these and estimate their relationships with health outcomes.

Politics, problematisation, and policy: A comparative analysis of energy poverty in England, Ireland and France

Energy poverty, as a social and political issue, is at different stages of development across Europe. Originating in the UK, it is reaching the political agenda in other European countries, driven by a range of concurrent issues including: economic recession and inequality, low carbon energy transitions, and changing consumption demands. This article presents analysis of three national approaches to energy poverty in Europe; England, Ireland and France. In comparing these cases, we show how each defines and measures energy poverty differently and how this affects the selection and functioning of different policy solutions. We draw on the conceptual separation of multiple streams theory (politics, problems and policy) to assess the shape of energy poverty on the political agenda of each nation. We consider the political context of each nation and show how energy poverty overlaps with other agendas such as: welfare reform, energy market liberalisation and climate change. We review each country's approach to defining the problem of energy poverty focusing on how the issue is delineated and measured. In each case, we show how there has been recourse to two broad types of policy solution: subsidising energy costs and improving the efficiency of the housing stock. Our analysis reveals interesting similarities (e.g. in the use of affordability and efficiency policies) and differences (e.g. in the versatility of definitions) in addressing the significant levels of inequality in access to energy services among the populations of three Western European countries.