Information Bulletin

Summary of News and Publications from the Week ending 22 February 2013

JRF Activity
Measuring child poverty JRFs response to the consultation on better measures of child poverty. We need more evidence on child poverty, not a more confusing definition of it Blog by Katie Bell. Our food chain is failing poorer people, as consumers and as workers. Blog from Julia Unwin. The horsemeat scandal must go beyond food safety our food should also be slavery free Blog from Louise Woodruff. Scotland vs England (in poverty stats) you cant tackle poverty with high housing costs Blog from Gordon Hector.

Poverty
20% of children across the UK are living in poverty according to the latest report and poverty map from the End Child Poverty campaign. In several larger cities, this figure rises to over 40%. At local authority level, the top three highest levels of child poverty are in Tower Hamlets at 42% (from 52% in 2011), Manchester at 38% (40% in 2011) and Middlesbrough at 37% (34% in 2011). I have put together a quick Storify on the responses to the child poverty consultation. Let me know if this kind of approach is useful for showing a range of content on a topic in future Bulletins. Also, Storify has been working slowly this week, so let me know if you have any access problems. Despite falling output, unemployment fell in the three months to December 2012 to 2.5 million with an unemployment rate of 7.8%. Youth unemployment rose by 11,000, its highest rise for a year. See also an interactive map of youth unemployment across the UK. Employment will continue to grow in the first quarter of 2013, according to the latest Labour Market Outlook report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. It also reports that decline in public sector employment is set to accelerate with the number of redundancies from December 2012 to May 2015 likely to match those in the last two years. Household energy bills are forecast to rise sharply within the next two years as a result of the closure of ageing power stations and the UKs need to find supplies from overseas, says Alistair Buchanan, Chief Executive of Ofgem. MP Helen Goodman is video blogging her experience of living on 18 a week for food, an experience some of her constituents will face following the upcoming housing benefit cuts. A consortium of charities led by Just Fair, say food poverty as a result of austerity measures in the UK could put the country in breach of the UN economic and social rights convention. They are monitoring the food poverty situation with a view to possibly triggering a UN investigation.

Households with lower incomes are experiencing the greatest pressure on their finances for four years, according to Markits latest Household Finance Index. Across all income groups, 41% of respondents expect their finances to get worse over the next year. IPPR Norths new report Northern Skills for National Prosperity recommends the localisation of skills strategies to include locally matching skills demand and supply, incentives for local employers to create job opportunities and linking and supporting disadvantaged people into entry-level employment opportunities. Children from the East London borough of Newington talk about child poverty and what they think is fair and unfair about their situation. A series of six papers have been published from the David Hume Institute examining Scotlands future options for policies on social welfare and social security in the context of constitutional change. Citizens Advice Scotland has published a report with evidence showing how people are already being denied benefits to which they are entitled and having benefits taken away from them because they cannot access or use the internet.

Place
Buying a house is more affordable than renting in the UK, with the average monthly costs for buying a house 16% lower than renting. According to the latest research from the Halifax, the gap between buying and renting has widened by 21 a month over the past year. Following an open letter this week from leading charities to the Government on the effects the bedroom tax will have on disabled people, Iain Duncan-Smith is said to be looking at whether disabled people could be identified to qualify for exemption. This article reports on the growing opposition to the bedroom tax by tenants, including planned demonstrations. The value of mortgage lending fell by 9% in January compared to December, according to the latest estimates from the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The latest statistics show that housing starts for 2012 were 98,280, 11% lower than 2011. The Scottish Government has announced a further 20 million to support their shared equity schemes. An article looks at how little is being done to protect existing housing stock from the consequences of climate change compared to new housing. Learning from Denmarks district heating schemes to cut fuel poverty. The issue of empty homes is to be debated in the Welsh Assembly. Current 23,000 homes have been empty for 6 months or more.

An Ageing Society
The UK is one of the worst financially prepared nations for old age, according to HSBCs latest global report, The Future of Retirement: a new reality, with the average person running out of savings a third of their way through retirement.

Women over 50 on average earn 18% less than men of the same age, TUS analysis reveals. This compares with a 10% gender pay gap across the workforce as a whole. This is part of the TUCs Age Immaterial project looking at issues facing women aged over 50 in work, including pay, caring responsibilities, age and sex discrimination, and health issues. A survey by an equity release company found that 23% of their retired clients had not claimed any of the benefits they were entitled to apart from the state pension, while 33% had not claimed everything they could. How the strategy for older people in Wales is encouraging social landlords to rethink their approach to care and support. Older people who learnt how to use Facebook to interact, showed improved memory and cognitive performance, a study at the University of Arizona has found. New supported housing initiative in Northern Ireland for people with dementia. The Scottish Labour party is highlighting the wide variation in costs for social care in Scotland. How a housing group have embraced telecare to allow elderly residents to stay in their homes longer. Older people should consider the option of going to university in order to continue working beyond the official retirement age, the minister for higher education has said, following the lifting of the age restrictions on student loans.

Other:
The Local Government All-Party Parliamentary Group and the All-Party Parliamentary Disability Group are undertaking an inquiry into adult social care for working age disabled people, with support from leading disability charity Scope. The inquiry will close on 19 March 2013. Andy Rose has been appointed as Chief Executive of the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA) and will start his role on 15 April. This Information Bulletin is produced on a weekly basis as an update for staff at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) for the purposes of their work it is not intended to be comprehensive but represents a selection of news and reports appearing in the last week. The items contained in this Bulletin are for information only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the JRF and JRHT.