Poverty Flashcards
(35 cards)
Rowntree 1936
Food 20 Shillings 6d clothing 8 Shillings Fuel 4 shillings 4d household sundries 1 shilling 8d personal sundries 9 shilling
Minimum Income standards
minimum social acceptable standard of living doesnt ask about poverty
experts check budgets met certain standards
single person requires £201 a week
Donald Hirsch (2013) on income standards
for non working households benefits continue to fall well short of providing the minimum acceptable income although pensioners claim pension credit gets just enough to meet the standard (Hirsch 2013)
Townsends Poverty Threshold (1979)
Created deprivation index scores for 2000 households
- plotted deprivation scores against logarithm of income as a percentage of supplementary benefit
- determined a poverty threshold
Desai (1986) supports townsend
used weighted regression analysis to confirm this threshold lay at 160% of supplementary benefit 60% of median income
-model deprivation x axis - deprivation index score
y- Log income as % of SB scale rating
changes in slope - number of different thresholds possible
townsend discrimination/cluster analysis proved 2 groups, poor and un poor related directly to income - but over lapped
Townsend deprivation index
ranked the percentage of people who hadnt had certain social contact or hot meals etc by certain time periods. i.e no fresh meat in 4 days of the week 19.3% or no cooked breakfast most days of the week 67%
UNDP Human development index
3 dimensions 4 indicators
Health education living standards (dimensions)
life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, gross national income per capita
Norway highest on HDI 0.938
UK 0.849 26th in the world
Multi-dimensional poverty index
10 indicators
3 dimensions
nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, children enrolled, fuel, toilet, water electricity, floor, assets
health education and living standards
Global age watch index
domains
Income security- indicators = pension income coverage, relative welfare, gdp per capita etc
health status- indicators = life expectancy at 60, healthly life expectancy at 60
these are direct ‘outcomes’ of old peoples wellbeing
Employment/education-indicators= employment of old people, educational status of old
proxy of enabling attributes capabilities of older people
enabling environment= indicators= social connections, physical safety, civic freedom, access to public transport
enabling social environment of society
absolute poverty Alcock P (2006)
absolute poverty is sometimes claimed to be objective even a scientific definition. based on the notion of subsistence, subsistence is the minimum needed to sustain life and so being below subsistence level is to be experiencing absolute poverty.
relative poverty
stops people participating in customary activities of society, their position doesnt improve in society. relative poverty is were you are above subsistence but below average
problems of measuring poverty
what is being measured?
separate catergories or poverty line threshold
Ringen 1988 confusion over direct and indirect measure to draw lines argues that consumption is a better determinate of standard of living and measures of poverty should be based on direct measures of this
townsend 1979 standards of living and relative deprivation
focused attention on expenditure/consumption as a measure of poverty
Income as a measure of poverty
most use income to establish those living below poverty line but income is employing an indirect measure, not all aspects of consumption are determined by income. i.e health care.
-income measures likely to overlook or understate importance of consumption
saunders (2002) on income as a measure of poverty
income and expenditure measures tapping into different dimensions of economic wellbeing
FES (Family expenditure survery) now EFS (Expenditure food survey) data source
collects information on expenditure
however expensive to collect and income is generally used
Limitations on using income
necessary to distinguish between gross and net income
housing effect
housing - rent and mortgage biggest part of peoples budget
statistics distinguish between income before housing (BHC) and after housing costs (AHC)
Creates significant differences to the level of poverty revealed, many poorer after AHC because of housing costs
Measuring income over time
people plan over week
benefits and wages used to be weekly now paid monthly and benefits fortnightly/ monthly
annual wage now
makes slight difference (boheim & Jenkins 2000) but similar picture
Savings and pension
distorts image of poverty
some people no wage large savings and pension- not under threat of poverty
lack of such assets increases risk of poverty
Atkinson (1983) on income as measure of poverty
If care is taken to recognise problems involved there is quite a lot we can say from data on income expenditure and the extent of poverty and inequality in the uk
Main measure of poverty in UK and EU
60% of the median income
- despite limitation clear poverty line
head count and poverty gap
poverty gap- distance between person below the line and the line
head count- number of people below the line
problems of headcount poverty gap
big difference between someone with 30% or median and someone with 58% of the median though both measure as poor
- policy implications - easier to move those just below the line above it (Bradshaw 2001)
- poor people need most help yet large scale reductions in poverty likely to be met by the not so poor
