PovertyJournal of the Child Poverty Action Group • Issue 147 • Winter 2014

Alan Milburn interviewed

The real reason for the misery of work assessments

How can we reduce child poverty without improving its prevention? Policy publications and CPAG briefings and reports from CPAG consultation responses

The following reports can all be downloaded from Read these and more consultation responses and www.cpag.org.uk/policy-reports briefings at www.cpag.org.uk/briefings-responses Independent Review of JSA Sanctions: CPAG’s Let’s All Have Lunch! , September 2013 response , January 2014 Childcare and Maternal Employment in Submission to the Work and Pensions Committee London , September 2013 Inquiry into Housing Costs Support , October 2013 The Cost of a Child in 2013 , August 2013 Submission to the ‘Tax-free Childcare’ Will Universal Credit Work? Consultation , October 2013 Written by CPAG for the TUC, May 2013 Localisation of the Social Fund: countdown to The Double Lockout: how low-income families change , March 2013 will be locked out of fair living standards, January CPAG’s Response to the Child Poverty 2013 Measurement Consultation , February 2013

Ending Child Poverty by 2020 Judicial Review: proposals for reform. CPAG’s Progress made and lessons learned response to the Ministry of Justice consultation, Edited by Lindsay Judge January 2013 96 pages 978 1 906076 82 5 2012 £10.00 CPAG Briefing on Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill, Young People’s Thoughts on Child Poverty January 2013 Policy , December 2012 CPAG Briefing for Autumn Statement 2012, December 2012 We Can Work It Out: parental employment in London , November 2012 Food Poverty in London , October 2012. Evidence to the London Assembly’s inquiry into food poverty. Between a Rock and a Hard Place: early impacts of welfare reform on London , November The Implementation of the Child Poverty Act: 2012 examining child poverty strategies in London local authorities , October 2012 The Implementation of the Child Poverty Act: examining child poverty strategies in London local authorities, October 2012 Help us make a difference: The Cost of a Child in the Twenty-first make a donation Century , September 2012 CPAG promotes action for the prevention and Going Hungry? Young people’s experience of relief of poverty among children and families with free school meals , June 2012 children. To achieve this, CPAG aims to raise Save Child Benefit , March 2012 awareness of the causes, extent, nature and impact of poverty, and strategies for its Poverty in Scotland 2011 eradication and prevention; bring about positive Towards a more equal Scotland? policy changes for families with children in poverty; Edited by John H McKendrick, Gerry Mooney, and enable those eligible for income maintenance John Dickie and Peter Kelly to have access to their full entitlement. If you are 248 pages 978 1 906076 59 7 20 11 £ 11 .00 not already supporting us, please consider making a donation, or ask for details of our membership Ending Child Poverty schemes, training courses and publications. A manifesto for success 54 pages 978 1 906076 37 5 2009 • Send a cheque, postal order or CAF voucher payable to ‘Child Poverty Action Group’. Coping with Complexity • Donate by credit card online at Child and adult poverty www.cpag.org.uk. • Set up a standing order through your bank to Mark Tomlinson and Robert Walker make a regular gift. 112 pages 978 1 906076 36 8 2009 £11.00 • Make a will and leave us a legacy . Out of Reach Gift Aid it. Donations to CPAG qualify for tax Benefits for disabled children relief. For every £1 that you donate we can claim Gabrielle Preston with Mark Robertson an extra 28p. 132 pages 978 1 901698 99 2 2006 £ 11 .00 For more information visit our website Printed copies are available to order from our www.cpag.org.uk , email [email protected] online shop at or write to CPAG, 94 White Lion Street, http://onlineservices.cpag.org.uk/shop London N 1 9PF. editorial contents

Child pove rt y strate gy must tackle In brief 2 current headwinds Diary 4

As Poverty goes to press, we have not yet had sight of the Open space 5 government’s next three-year child poverty strategy that it is obliged to produce under the terms of the Child Poverty Act 2010. Interview 6 As the strategy must be laid before parliament by early April, the Alan Milburn talks to Lindsay Judge window for consultation is slowly closing, and opportunities for and Moussa Haddad interested parties to influence the plan become more limited every day. But the delay is perhaps unsurprising – for how can a The real reason for the misery of 10 government that is presiding over a set of policies projected to work assessments Kaliya Frank investigates impoverish an additional 450,000 children over the course of this parliament not find the exercise anything but a challenge? How can we reduce child poverty 14 Against this background, we were very lucky to have the chance to without improving its prevention? speak to a key player in the child poverty debate – Alan Milburn, Adrian Sinfield puts the case for better chair of the independent Child Poverty and Social Mobility prevention Commission. In our interview, he highlights some of the key issues Pove rt y watch 18 he believes the new strategy must grapple with. In his view, policy must be galvanised to tackle in-work poverty, while housing policy Research review 20 is ‘the dog that hasn’t yet barked’.

Alan Milburn also acknowledges, however, that the new strategy Last word 21 will have to work against ‘headwinds’, including the substantial cuts that have been (and still may be) made to social security. He was also clear that the Commission would tolerate no further Pove rt y is the policy journal of the Child Poverty Action delays on the child poverty measurement question. After a year in Group. It aims to carry articles and features that will inform, stimulate and develop the debate on the nature which the government has failed to account against any child and causes of poverty in its various forms and on the poverty benchmark, the time has clearly come to set out the action required, especially by governments, to relieve and measures that it will use in the future to judge its actions against. ultimately prevent it. Our objective is to publish material that achieves a high standard of analysis, without Our two subsequent feature articles in this issue of Poverty explore sacrificing clarity or accessibility, to specialist and non- the other ‘headwinds’ that currently run counter to effective action specialist alike. on child poverty. Kaliya Frank begins by digging deep into the practice and management culture at Atos Healthcare, exploring Editorial staff Editor: Lindsay Judge/Moussa Haddad how decisions about employment support allowance are made. Production editor: Alison Key She shows that, despite ministers denying that targets exist, in Diary: Caroline Paskell practice assessors are required to operate within a narrow band of Research review: Moussa Haddad Advertising and circulation: Liz Dawson ‘norms’. If they stray beyond these boundaries, they are criticised and closely monitored and, as a result, de facto targets emerge. The views expressed in Pove rt y are not necessarily those of CPAG. We welcome articles and other In our final feature, Adrian Sinfield argues that we should move contributions from our readers. away from the notion of poverty reduction and pay more attention Pove rt y is published three times a year by CPAG, to poverty prevention. Few would disagree that upstream 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF Telephone: 020 7837 7979 intervention is eminently more sensible than downstream mitigation [email protected] but, despite this, the child poverty debate often speaks more about www.cpag.org.uk the latter than the former. By focusing on prevention, spending on Registered Company No. 1993854 children could once again be framed as an investment, moving us Charity No. 294841 (England and Wales); No. SC039339 (Scotland) away from the current mood that views family benefits as a VAT No. 690 808117 deadweight and hence the first port of call for cuts. Pove rt y is sent to all CPAG members – write for details We hope, then, that when the next child poverty strategy is or visit www.cpag.org.uk/membership published it sets out a genuine vision for the next three years, and © Child Poverty Action Group 2014 a sensible plan of action. If it started from the view that investing ISSN 0 0032 5856 in children is critical, went on to set out credible policies to tackle Cover photos: Jess Hur d/ Reportdigital in-work poverty, the education gap, childcare and housing, and Design/Page make-up: [email protected] Print: Calverts, [email protected] finally set out a way that practice and culture in key agencies This edition of Pove rt y has been printed on Cyclus could be changed (as all our contributors propose), that would a Offset 100% recycled paper, kindly donated to CPAG by be a strategy of which to be proud. We wait in hope. ■ Arjowiggins Graphic and Calverts Press.

Poverty 147 1 in brief

is claiming that real earnings are finally natural interdependence. They point to Child benefit out of the doldrums. the way the ‘bedroom tax’ is forcing some to move away from family and revelations It bases its assertion on calculations that community networks, for example. use post-tax, rather than pre-tax, Moreover, they question whether the Go back to 1976 and a vicious fight was earnings, arguing that this is a better government currently recognises the raging about the introduction of child indicator of what people actually have in social and economic value of unpaid benefit. This was not a cross-party their pockets at the end of the week. care sufficiently. battle. Instead, James Callaghan’s While this may be true in principle, the government was cross-briefing its own figures the government has used require More positively, the report documents MPs, downplaying the level of support some scrutiny. the resilience and optimism of many that existed for the new benefit, and living with multiple problems. Rather pitching parliamentarians against union Critically, while the government’s post-tax than expecting the state to provide all leaders. Child benefit looked set to be earnings figures take account of income the solutions, those interviewed for the shelved, when a leak exposed just what tax changes – most notably, the generous research remained concerned about, was going on inside government. increases that have been made to the and willing to help, others. And when the personal tax allowance over the last three state does intervene, overwhelmingly the The posthumous publication of a years – they fail to factor in the many most successful interventions were biography by ex-Labour MP Malcolm cuts to benefits and tax credits made those based on co-operation and trust, Wicks makes clear that it was he who over the same period. Similarly, the rather than compliance and fear. ■ leaked the information while working as earnings data used strips out the wage a junior civil servant. Despite having increases of those employed for less The Ties That Bind , by D Leary and J Salter, is signed the Official Secrets Act, Wicks than a year, distorting the figure upwards. available at www.demos.co.uk/files decided that the ethical thing to do was to expose the ‘downright lies’ the Despite its claim, then, that the figures government was telling, and duly passed provide a better indication of improving on information about the government’s living standards, in truth, the figures shenanigans to Frank Field, then director used have little bearing on real Benefits Street of Child Poverty Action Group. disposable incomes. As with many statistics the government has produced Channel 4’s Benefits Street has Field, who has kept the secret of Wicks’s in recent months, a large pinch of salt is provoked as much a debate about the action for 38 years, went on to write an probably in order. ■ ethics of TV production as it has about anonymous article in New Society entitled our benefits system. The programme ‘Killing the Commitment’, embarrassing follows the lives of those living on James the government sufficiently into pursuing Turner Street in Birmingham and is rife the policy after all. with drug taking, petty crime and benefit The ties that bind fraud. However, residents have claimed ‘Was I right to leak the cabinet papers? I they were tricked into participating by still think I was’, wrote Wicks in his Changing the lives of those living with producers who suggested the biography. Field spells out Wick’s role in multiple disadvantages is notoriously documentary would focus on community stronger terms, saying: ‘Child benefit challenging: for many years most public spirit. Moreover, working residents have would not now exist had it not been for policy interventions have ‘bounced off’ also complained that they have been left ■ Malcolm’s courage.’ those in the bottom income decile. But out of the final cut. as a new report by the think tank Demos explains, one reason for this is that CPAG has been vocal in its criticism of many programmes and services are the programme’s aim to divide society insufficiently mindful of the relationships into those who give and those who Are real earnings within which people’s lives are embedded, receive, thereby propagating myths and often work to undermine, rather about social security spending. In a rising? than support, existing coping strategies. letter to The Times , chief executive Alison Garnham pointed out that: Are earnings finally going up faster than The authors of The Ties That Bind are prices? They are, if the government is to upfront in identifying low income as the With two-thirds of poor children living be believed. Despite the fact that the most significant source of stress for in working families, it should be latest Office for National Statistics families. Consequently, an adequate obvious that many hardworking figures suggest that real wages remain income is clearly regarded as a parents are both taxpayers and stubbornly below inflation (in November necessary, albeit not sufficient, condition benefit recipients – for example, last year, average earnings grew by 0.9 if tackling multiple disadvantage is to relying on tax credits to boost meagre per cent while prices rose by 2.1 per succeed. The authors go on to criticise earnings. The simple truth is that cent according to CPI), the government policies that work counter to people’s nearly everyone who receives benefits

2 Poverty 147 in brief

Founder of the Taxpayers Against workforce has claimed jobseeker’s Poverty campaign, Rev Paul Nicolson, allowance in the past two years, two- who is challenging the London Borough fifths of whom had never claimed before. of Haringey on the legality of hitting Rises in in-work poverty are coming those summonsed with a further £125 despite unemployment beginning to fall, court costs , said: and the number underemployed dropping by 100,000 last year. ■ l a t i

g ‘Although the bedroom tax has had i d t r o more attention, this tax deepens the p e R /

s scandal. It creates debts on top of i r r a

H rent arrears already caused by the n h o

J bedroom tax and housing benefit Housing and caps. Bailiffs will be employed by the – whether they have lost their job, are local authorities to enforce the tax child pove rt y in low pay, ill or disabled, retired or against the poverty incomes of more caring for a loved one – has worked, than a million households this year, In 2013, CPAG was lucky enough to is working or will soon work. ■ adding up to £400 in fees. The have been chosen by the Chartered summons to court comes as Institute of Housing (CIH) as its charity of a bombshell to many households who the year. To mark the approaching end cannot believe that they have to pay of that partnership, CIH convened a the tax from unemployment or roundtable in December to discuss the Thousands hit by disability benefits .’ ■ role of housing in tackling child poverty. Participants explored how housing council tax bills relates to child poverty in three key ways: cost, availability and quality. In recent weeks, many of the UK’s poorest households have received The new face of Across the UK, an extra 1.2 million summonses to mass court hearings over children are in poverty once housing non-payment of council tax. Before April pove rt y costs are taken into account. Rents are 2013, their full council tax liability was rising in both the social and private covered by council tax benefit, but then The latest edition of Joseph Rowntree sectors, and housing support is the central government funding of council Foundation’s annual Monitoring Poverty crucible through which benefit cuts, tax benefit was cut by 10 per cent and and Social Exclusion report, written by including the ‘bedroom tax’, are taking devolved to local authorities, with the New Policy Institute, demonstrates place. But, beyond that, quality and instructions to come up with their own the continuing rise of in-work poverty. availability of housing can also impact local scheme. For the first time, more than half of those on children: a child will do less well at of all ages living in poverty are in school if s/he does not have somewhere A report in January from the Institute for working households. The number in safe and comfortable to do her/his Fiscal Studies found that, of the two such a position rose by half a million in a homework, while parents will struggle to million working-age households who had year, to 6.7 million. On the positive side, get the family out of poverty if there are all their council tax paid under the old pensioner poverty is at its lowest level not any affordable houses within reach system, 1.4 million now have to pay a for 30 years – a success story, and proof of decent jobs. minimum council tax charge. that poverty is policy-responsive. Households affected are typically Attendees reported that more and more jobseekers, carers, disabled people and This is, at root, a story of low pay. families are falling into rent arrears and lone parents with young children. Among those in work, the number paid debt, cutting back on essentials and, as below the ‘living wage’ rose from 4.6 one participant put it, being placed on ‘a In some local authorities, the minimum million to 5 million in 2012. Half of journey to the food bank’. Yet housing payment is as much as 30 per cent of working families in poverty have an adult providers are doing a lot to support their the full tax, while the average amount paid below this amount. The fall in tenants, beyond simply housing them. per household is £160 a year. Many are median income over the past two years Housing organisations are bringing already paying off rent arrears as a result has wiped out all of the gains of the together different services for families, of the ‘bedroom tax’ and housing benefit previous decade – though the incomes including financial, welfare, skills and cap. Local authorities are summonsing of the poorest tenth have been falling employment advice, and are increasingly thousands of people at a time to much longer, since 2004/05. moving into providing childcare. They magistrates’ courts. The number of could also consider taking a more active liability orders issued by magistrates is The report also shows that millions are role in local credit partnerships. But they expected to exceed three million, adding moving in and out of work, cycling cannot do this alone, and were widely between £50 and £125 court costs to a between in-work and out-of-work encouraged to work with councils, health person’s arrears in each case. poverty. Around one-sixth of the boards, schools and faith communities. ■

Poverty 147 3 diary

October week, compared with £391 for those whose huge geographical variations in unemployment, child was not affected by ADHD. educational achievement and life expectancy. 29 The Children’s Society launches its The research also shows that the level of 29 Data on living standards in Northern Children’s Commission on Poverty ‘to make benefits for families with children now covers Ireland is released by the Poverty and Social sure children’s views are at the heart of the no more than 60 per cent of what the public Exclusion UK research centre. It shows that debate on child poverty’. Its Through Young considers to be a minimum standard of living. 30 per cent of survey households with children Eyes report of children’s views and experiences cannot not afford a holiday away from home 16 An article in the Guardian highlights the of poverty is the first evidence given to a for at least one week a year, and one in eight nationwide expansion of ‘baby banks’, as panel of 15 young people. cannot afford to take a day trip with the family experiences of financial hardship increase for 30 The second phase evaluation of Glasgow’s once a month. new mothers with the economic downturn and Healthier, Wealthier Children project reports, welfare cuts. CPAG’s chief executive is quoted, 29 The Welsh Assembly’s first Child Poverty showing this innovative partnership of NHS, praising the voluntary provision but adding Strategy Progress Report is published. It local authorities, voluntary sector and that, ‘We know we are failing as a decent observes that the percentage of children living academic organisations has tackled the area’s society when parents must rely on emergency in workless households has decreased since high levels of child poverty. The first phase aid for the basic things their baby needs.’ 2009, and highlights a small reduction in the had indicated a range of strategies to provide education attainment gap between children 17 The charity Gingerbread publishes research information, early identification and support eligible for free school meals and those not showing that one-fifth of lone parents are at for families with financial worries, and this eligible. least £100 a month worse off since benefit evaluation provides a detailed analysis of how reforms were introduced in April 2013, and good practice has been embedded in the December two-thirds have missed meals to ensure their year since. children have enough to eat. Gingerbread 2 The Children’s Society welcomes the asserts that such experiences are likely to November announcement of new fuel poverty criteria, become more widespread and cites Women’s which it says provides a more accurate 1 The Scottish Health and Sport Committee is Budget Group research that estimates single measure of the number of children living in to investigate child poverty in relation to its parents will lose 15 per cent of their net income fuel poverty. Quoting its research that over inquiry into health inequalities. by 2015/16 as a result of government cuts. half of all children in the UK who say they are 7 Action for Children publishes its 2013 Red in poverty are living in homes that are too cold 18 A Barnardo’s survey of its services Book , stating that children are ‘feeling crushed’ and one-quarter live in damp or mould-ridden explores the growing use of emergency food under the pressure of adult problems, including conditions, the charity observes that: ‘The schemes. Almost all services (94 per cent) poverty and parents losing their jobs. The new fuel poverty criteria announced today reported increased or high demand for food report draws on its survey of 160 service reveals that an alarming 2.5 million children in banks or vouchers in the past year. ■ managers running projects supporting almost this country – double the previously estimated 50,000 children. Two-thirds report seeing number – are living in fuel poverty.’ children who need more support with issues 5 The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement sets out faced by their families as services are cut. details of the extension of free school meals 7 An online survey of 1,300 children shows and plans for ongoing investment in schemes that 90 per cent of children as young as six to improve energy efficiency in the homes of see money as essential to achieving their children living on low incomes. However, he is aspirations. The study by England’s Office of criticised by welfare and children’s charities the Children’s Commissioner provides insights for freezing the level of earnings that universal into how children’s aspirations are affected by credit recipients can keep without affecting living in a low-income household. their benefit, and for the absence of support for rising childcare costs. 13 Research by NatCen for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds that single income 5 In a written ministerial statement, Work ‘breadwinner’ families are the largest group of and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith households experiencing child poverty. Almost admits that the government will miss its one-third (400,000) of families with children in target to move all claimants to universal poverty are two-parent families with one credit by 2017. In its response, Citizens parent in work. Advice agreed that ‘pushing back the deadline … is the right thing to do if it 26 Research by the University of Exeter means getting it right .’ Medical School indicates that a greater percentage of children with ADHD come from 8 The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s families below the poverty line than from the annual Monitoring Poverty and Social UK population as a whole. Analysing the Exclusion report is published, highlighting l a t i

Millennium Cohort Study, a UK database of g i d t r over 19,500 children born between 2000 and ■ 7 November: 90 per cent of o p e R 2002, the researchers found that average children as young as six see / d r u H family incomes for households whose study money as essential to achieving s s e child was affected by ADHD was £324 per their aspirations J

4 Poverty 147 open space

he 20 12 Olympics were awarded to east changes. One respondent we TLondon because of the huge potential of the interviewed promptly found a people already here: young, bright and entrepre - job when she learnt how much neurial. But many people face multiple and com - she would lose in housing bene - plex challenges: 25 per cent of households in fit as a result of the benefit cap. poverty, affecting 50 per cent of all children; the Unfortunately, we also found: l a

highest rates of ill health and premature death in t i g • Almost everyone has experi - i d t

London; and one of the highest crime rates in the r o

enced a reduction in income. p e capital. During the longest and deepest recession R / d

One respondent had lost r u

since comparable records began in the 1950s, we H

around 40 per cent of her s s e

have seen people’s lives get far harder and their J total household income. struggle to keep a home together become more challenging day by day. • Pressure on incomes means that people have Community Links has been changed their spending habits, spending less working in Newham since Some of our services support people to deal with and going without. Respondents prioritise rent 1977, when it began with crises or problems (such as exclusion from school, payments for fear of losing their homes. two principles: to find new imminent eviction, or long-term unemployment), • Respondents reported increased stress and solutions to old problems while others take action early, helping to build anxiety, and some reported new health issues. and to deliver them with the ready and resourceful neighbourhoods so that res - whole community. It now • Work was viewed as a way to mitigate the impact idents avoid crises and thrive. We believe that both works across the whole of of the reforms for some, but not everyone. are vital, but that we should be aiming to reduce east London, with a the reliance on acute services and shift our provi - • Some people were not well informed about the concentration of work in sion to earlier action – preventing problems arising changes and had not received appropriate Newham – the youngest area rather than dealing with the consequences. communication. And there is a lack of support in England and the most to help people manage. diverse locality in Europe. Currently, for example, we provide welfare bene - Community Links’ Senior fits, housing and debt advice to over 5,000 people Our research suggests that those who can cope Researcher Ellie Roberts in crisis each year, supporting people appeal bad will cope. These people have families to rely on, and describes its recent work, benefit decisions, negotiate debts, or stave off favours they can ask of friends. They may downsize, investigating the impact of eviction. But we have also piloted public legal edu - find work and re-establish some sort of normality. welfare reform on the local cation training, teaching the basic skills we all But what about those who do not have the same community. need to stay on top of money, debts, jobs and our capacity? People who do not have families and rights. The course gives participants the knowl - networks of friends, people who are ill or disabled? edge to spot legal issues (to know when some - thing is illegal, not just unfair; when we have rights The reality is that many are simply not managing. and when we are responsible) and to know what to The injustice is that, instead of encouraging people do (how to challenge a benefits decision, exert to be more self-sufficient, addressing barriers and consumer rights, or avoid a crippling interest rate helping people progress to a state in which they or hidden charges). are no longer in poverty and in need of substantial welfare support, the changes are disempowering We believe that understanding the difficulties peo - them. Our research shows a distinct group of ple face is vital, both to help us design our servic - respondents who are not capable of negotiating es and to lobby for changes at a local and national the complicated landscape of reform. Many do not level. So, over the past six months Community Links understand what is happening or just how serious has carried out in-depth qualitative research into the things might get. Others are unimaginably far from impact of welfare reform on our local community. the labour market and feel powerless to do any - thing to mitigate the financial impacts. The research (due to be published this spring) explores how people’s lives have been affected by This research is important and will help us better government decisions to cut and limit entitlement design our frontline services and understand what to benefits, tax credits and other public services. people are going through when we are supporting The impact has been substantial. Although welfare them. But we hope it will also help shape the direc - reform has affected every individual uniquely, the tion of future reforms. Combined with rising living gloomy story is the same: the incomes of people costs and cuts in funding for support services like already at the bottom of the income distribution ours, welfare reforms are having a profoundly neg - and already living on the breadline, have dramati - ative impact on many people in Newham. ■ cally reduced.

If you would like more information about the research, For a minority, the prospect of living on even less contact: [email protected] 020 7473 9666 has nudged them towards making positive @Comm_Links

Poverty 147 5 feature Interview: Alan Milburn

The Child Pove rt y Act 2010 requires the Lindsay Judge: One of things we observe in political discourse at the moment is the sense government to produce a strategy every three that it doesn’t matter if you grow up in child years, setting out the action it plans to take to end poverty, so long as you are socially mobile in later life. What is your view on the relationship child pove rt y in the UK. Alongside this, the Act between child poverty and social mobility?

established an independent Child Pove rt y and Alan Milburn: Well, for us in the Commission Social Mobili ty Commission, tasked with the they are two sides of the same coin. Although people argue that you can have a highly watchdog role of assessing government progress unequal and highly mobile society – Australia is often cited as an example – actually, low levels against the commitments set out in the plan. In the of mobility tend to be correlated with low levels year in which the government must publish its of equality, and vice versa. So the Commission has what looks like a duel remit, but I don’t see vision for reducing child pove rt y over the next it like that – I see it as a single remit. We want to ensure that opportunities, both in terms of three years, Alan Milburn , Chair of the Commission, income and in terms of life chances, are as talks to CPAG’s Lindsay Judge and Moussa Haddad widely available to as many people in society as possible. about his views on child pove rt y and social What is true, however, is that there are different mobili ty, about child pove rt y measurement, and his cohorts in the population that require different hopes and fears for the next strate gy. responses. There is undoubtedly a cohort who lives in entrenched poverty – the ‘bottom decile of the population’ issue – and they are charac - terised by unemployment and sometimes rela - tively chaotic lifestyles. And this cohort requires a specific policy response. The problem is that sometimes this cohort is confused with a much wider group who suffer from transient poverty, for whom low pay and in-work poverty are more the issue and therefore require a different policy response. We should avoid conflating entrench- ed poverty and transient poverty.

But what all cohorts need, in my view, is two things: you have to do what you can on income distribution and, at the same time, you have to do what you can on opportunity distribution. So when ministers or commentators sometimes have said that there’s too much focus on the one and we must shift to the other, I think that is not necessarily the right approach. l a t i g

i LJ: So do you think it is possible to improve d t r o

p social mobility in the absence of policies that e R / d

r reduce child poverty? u H

s s e J AM: No – you’ve got to do both. We don’t see any contradiction between them. But there is of course a problem with where public attitudes are on poverty – you can see that from the

6 Poverty 147 feature

British Social Attitudes Survey. This probably have got to have as much of an emphasis on tells us frankly that all of us who thought that we ensuring work does genuinely pay, and that the had won the child poverty argument in the incentives are right for people once in work to 2000s were wrong. progress, as on getting out of worklessness.

So we need to think very carefully about what But the really tough thing with this is that we the focus of our efforts should now be. I think if have very high levels of low pay in the UK – we focus only on those in entrenched poverty, among the highest levels in the OECD. We have that makes this an issue for a minority and not five million workers earning less than the ‘living a majority. When that happens, people think wage’ – many of them women who do all the poverty is an issue for others and not for them - right things, stand on their own two feet, go out selves. What we need to do is make poverty an to work – all the things politicians tell them to issue that the whole society cares about. It do. And yet they get a rotten deal. So I really needs to be relevant to the whole of society and welcome the debates on the living wage, and to the majority of families. the fact that George Osborne is arguing with the Low Pay Commission about a higher level of the Moussa Haddad: Can we turn to the sub - national minimum wage. These are all positive stance of the next strategy. The Commission’s developments – they just need to be taken fur - State of the Nation report published last year ther and much quicker to make sure that people criticised the current child poverty strategy for are able to escape poverty through their own failing to pay sufficient attention to the demand efforts. side of the economy. How would you like to see the next strategy address this issue? So that’s the second issue. And the third is a more fundamental and longer term thing, which AM: The big missing piece of the action has is that as our economy becomes much more been on in-work poverty. Of course, there are knowledge based – which it is and will continue families who are poor because no one is in to do so – life chances for poor kids are as good work, but the number of families who are poor as life chances are for better-off kids. Funda- Work helps, but and in work dwarfs the numbers who are not – mentally, the biggest thing that unlocks social it’s double the number. That’s been a funda - progress is education. So starting in the early it is not a cure mental change in the nature of poverty over the years – we need a long-term, clear plan for early for pove rt y course of the last two decades and, as ever, years services because we know what happens public policy has been slow to respond. But if then has an impact longer term on children’s you’ve got a situation where two-thirds lives. Currently, as we argued in the report, there of kids in poverty live in families where someone are lots of different initiatives on this, but no is in work – well, that suggests the old assump - overall plan or destination. tion that if we get people off welfare and into work we will solve the poverty problem is now We also need to make sure that the best misplaced. schools are just as likely to be in the poorest areas as in the richest and they are not, and we We have to be absolutely clear about what the need to make sure that the best teachers are in data tells us and respond accordingly – and I the worst schools and poorest areas, which see that as an important function of the they are not. So that means we have to think Commission – to interrogate the data and about how we incentivise teachers – how we ensure that people are reading it correctly. And pay them, how we recognise them – what we the data suggests you have to do three things. measure in schools. Of course, ensuring that at a time when 2.5 mil - lion are unemployed – and youth unemploy - So for me, there’s a three-part agenda: one, ment has more than doubled in recent years – welfare to work; two, make work pay; and three, getting people off benefits and into work is make education the driving force that enhances important. No argument about that. We can mobility and the prospects of escaping poverty. have an argument about whether the right That is the frame we have in mind at the approach has been taken to achieve this, but Commission – we are judging action against this we want to see a renewed focus on this issue. three-legged stool. And it is not just the govern - So that’s one. ment we look to – the idea that it is the tax payer who will do all the heavy lifting is not feasible. Two, the old assumption that if you got a job We look to businesses and voluntary organisa - you would not be poor is no longer true. Work tions too. helps, but it is not a cure for poverty. So we

Poverty 147 7 feature Alan Milburn

LJ: One of the things we know, looking at the struggling. Even when the economy recovers, evidence, is that even in OECD countries that their earnings are not going to go up and the have better underlying conditions than we state is forced to step in – or not, as the case have in the UK, you can still have high levels may be. I think it is a major issue of public of poverty. So we know that social security will debate about whether it is right that taxpayers always remain a key part of any effective have to subsidise low wages amongst employ - poverty-reduction strategy. To what extent ers who are often highly profitable. That’s a does the Commission believe it is possible to debate that should find an echo as much on the reduce child poverty in a period of declining right as on the left of politics because those on social security support? the right who want to see a smaller state should be arguing for employers doing more, not less. AM: I think there are several headwinds that make action more difficult in an age of austerity So I think the argument will change over the than in an age of plenty. course of this year and the Commission will partially force this because we will argue that if LJ: But it’s not just a question of an age of the recovery is underway – which we welcome austerity is it? We are always in an age of – that this is the moment of opportunity to choices – cutting the working-age spend, for ensure there is a social recovery alongside the example, and cutting family benefits have economic recovery. been an active choice. LJ: But as one of my colleagues put it recent - AM: Of course. If choices were made about ly, we are increasingly seeing a ‘normalisation spending money in different ways, the task of destitution in the UK’. Do you have any would be easier. But I don’t believe that over the views on that? next 15 months, despite all the heat and noise, If you have an there will be little difference between any of the AM: I think society as a whole would be pretty main political parties on the size of the overall uncomfortable about that. The BSA tells you economic recovery spending envelope. But this is a challenge for all that people recognise difference and diversity – without a social the mainstream political parties: if you are going our country is remarkably liberal. But the public to will the ends – abolishing child poverty – does expect a shared set of values to be applied, recovery that is you’ve got to will the means. And the IFS would equally and severally. They do expect that every - not a success, say that the means are a scale of redistribution one who can work, does, and they do accept that has never been seen in this country, so I that there are those in the population who can’t it’s a failure personally think that isn’t going to happen. But work, and that’s fine. It would be a terrible mis - if that isn’t going to happen, what are you going take I think if the child poverty lobby were to to commit to? And that’s a different type of focus purely on the entrenched poor – because challenge. it then becomes ‘us and them’ – the few appar - ently pitched against the values of the many. I think what is going to happen is that over the course of the next six to 12 months the public So I think it was a failure that the last Labour debate will move from one that is about the cost government took solace from the fact that great of living to one that is about the proceeds of campaigning organisations, including religious recovery. And the Commission’s view on this is organisations, all pitched behind the notion of that if you have an economic recovery without a reducing child poverty and thought that the social recovery that is not a success, it’s a failure. public argument for reducing child poverty was being won. It was being lost and you could LJ: What do you mean by a social recovery? track it virtually every year as support fell away. We’ve got to recalibrate the argument so that it AM: If we have a repeat of what has happened is much more about insecurity, it’s much more for the last decade in this country where there about the fact that very ordinary families are has been a decoupling of economic growth and one day doing okay, but the next day could be earnings growth – that’s a failure. So an explicit joining the ranks of the poor. macro-economic objective for any political party serious about making Britain fairer, more This is what I learned as government minister: socially mobile and less poor, is to recouple public policies will only work if they have public earnings growth and economic growth. permission, because otherwise what happens is that politicians run scared. I want politicians Because there are five million people earning not to be running scared – I want them to be fol - less than the living wage in the UK, and they are lowing a progressive public.

8 Poverty 147 feature

MH: One part of the jigsaw we haven’t talked LJ: Do you think it would be better if the strat - about yet is housing. The statistics show that egy covered the course of a parliament? 17 per cent of children live in poverty before housing costs are taken into account, but this AM: Yes, that would make a lot of sense. Some rises to 27 per cent after housing costs. Is this of these issues are long term – if we want to get a cause of concern for the Commission? to Scandinavian levels of childcare, for exam - ple, that is a 10-year journey and more. We have AM: Yes – the gap is large and it is growing. I to know where we are going to. So I think that think that housing is the dog that hasn’t barked is one feature. Second, the new strategy should in both the poverty and the social mobility are - truly be holistic in approach. That means, for us, nas. Again, there have been some fundamental it has to contain the three elements I mentioned things that have been happening in society over already – getting people into work, tackling in- the last couple of decades. The number of fam - work poverty and enhancing life chances. And ilies with children in rented accommodation has three, I think it has be very clear about these dif - increased, for example. And while there is no ferent cohorts we are dealing with. Sometimes I I think it was a doubt that having a thriving private rented sec - feel that there is a scramble – it’s not that the tor has macro-economic benefits, it also has a government lacks initiatives, it just feels like a failure that the last downside for tenants – not least in terms of Jackson Pollock painting – I can see splashes Labour government insecurity and cost. I think government has to of colour, but I can’t get the overall meaning! look at these issues. It can’t be right that the took solace from average private sector rent is much higher than And the final issue, of course, is that we want to the fact that great the average social rent and, in a sixth of cases, see the next strategy underpinned by measure - higher than the average mortgage! ment and the right set of measures, and we campaigning have a view on that as you know from our con - organisations, Of course, fundamentally there is a mismatch sultation response. Income has got to be the between housing supply and housing demand, foundation. However, we also see a need for including religious and the laws of economics would tell you that this something around the opportunity agenda, and organisations, all escalates costs, and prices some people out the we also suggested that government try to iden - market altogether. The answer in the long term is tify the causal factors. But, if after all this time pitched behind the to build more. So housing will, I think, become the government fails to produce a set of meas - notion of reducing a bigger issue and a variety of approaches is ure in the next strategy, that would be frankly a needed – including thinking about how we can joke. Because having implied that it doesn’t child poverty and make it easier for people to buy, and not just to have confidence in the existing measures, hav - thought that the rent, with all the caveats around what happened ing gone out to consultation on new measures – during the global financial crisis. then to produce no measures – that is beyond public argument Whitehall farce. for reducing child MH: Do you see any parallels with in-work poverty and the way in which the taxpayer MH: Given the political climate, how can pove rt y was being carries a heavy load for that? organisations like CPAG best hold the govern - won ment to account on child poverty? AM: Completely. If the private sector rents are high and the difference between these and AM: Well, the most important thing is that you social housing rents is funded by the tax payer. continue to do that. Because you’ve got a But you have to be careful where that takes you great track record in championing what are because for some, rather than increasing sup - often unpopular causes and you should contin - ply and bringing down costs, you simply bring ue to do that. But as I said earlier, this is a down the housing benefits bill. moment of inflection for all of us who care about this issue and we have to think carefully about LJ: A question on form. Many government where we have reached – fiscally, politically, and strategies – including the current child poverty attitudinally – how we best go about making the strategy – are criticised for not having a clear argument. ■ road map that spells out how they will achieve their objectives. How can the next child poverty Lindsay Judge and Moussa Haddad are both Senior strategy surmount this challenge? Policy and Research Officers at Child Poverty Action Group

AM: Time will tell! First, it needs a long-term vision – it is crazy that it only covers three years and it straddles an election. It’s a flaw in the requirements of the Child Poverty Act.

Poverty 147 9 feature The real reason for the mise ry of work assessments

Many sick and disabled people, including those would ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ the test. This led to a test constructed to allocate as few points as possi - with Huntington’s Disease, uncontrolled ble, by ignoring the real barriers to work and epilepsy, kidney failure or brittle bone disease, assessing a person’s ability to ‘function’ against the most basic and irrelevant ‘descriptors’, are refused employment and support allowance. such as lifting an empty cardboard box. Although some improvements have been made Why are so many being failed, and who is since then, the rate of successful appeals responsible? Kaliya Franklin investigates. against ESA decisions continues to rise. Initial decisions are taken by the DWP, based on assessments provided by Atos. Appeal deci - The blame game sions are made by an independent tribunal. The work capability assessment (WCA), used to Why is there such a disparity between the two? determine eligibility for employment and sup - port allowance (ESA), has been dogged with Statistical norms problems since its inception. Ministers, MPs, ‘Norm-referencing’ awards a ‘score’ on the the DWP and campaigners point the finger at basis of the ranking of that case within a Atos Healthcare, contracted to carry out the defined cohort or group. In contrast, criterion- tests on behalf of the DWP. The DWP says it will referencing awards a ‘score’ on the basis of improve the system by allowing other compa - comparing achievement with clear, objective nies to bid for the contract once it is due for measures. The test for IB was a criterion-based renewal this year. l a

t system. People were awarded points based on i g i d t r how they scored against certain criteria – for o p DWP ministers and Atos have always denied e

R example, those who could walk less than 50 / d

r the existence of ‘targets’ for the WCA. However, u

H metres were awarded more points than those

s this article presents evidence that it operates to s e

J who could walk less than 200 metres. If some - a ‘norm-referenced system’. This is a de facto one scored the number of points the criteria target system, because when statistical norms demanded for benefit receipt, s/he would be are applied to a process such as the WCA, they entitled to the benefit. deliver the same outcome as targets and gear the whole system to achieve the desired result In 2007, Conservative MP Timothy Boswell – a cap on the overall number of people permit - warned: 2 ted to receive ESA. So, would replacing Atos with Capita, Serco or G4S really improve out - ‘I can imagine circumstances… in which a comes for sick and disabled people? Would it future minister… might wish to say: ‘We will reduce the cost to the taxpayer of successful introduce a norm. We are not going to have, appeals? The answer, sadly, is no. by definition, more than 1.5 million people on employment and support allowance,’ and the The WCA was conceived under the previous tests will, in effect, be geared to deliver that Labour government by Lord David Freud. 1 result.’ Despite admitting he was new to benefits and disability issues, within three weeks he appeared The WCA is a norm-referenced system. To to conclude that two-thirds of those receiving receive ESA, someone must score the required incapacity benefit (IB, the predecessor to ESA) number of points and fall within the proportion were capable of work. And so it began: a sys - of people the system will allow. In practice, this tem designed not to assess whether someone means there is a finite number of claims that was really too sick or disabled to work, but one can be awarded benefit, regardless of the num - to fit with a pre-conceived idea of how many ber of people who meet the eligibility criteria.

10 Poverty 147 feature

This goes a long way towards explaining why ‘I got the impression that assessors always attempts to achieve positive change to the had one eye on what the auditors would think WCA have had such little effect. of their reports. No one wanted to be put on “the naughty step”.’ Analysis of the evidence Atos monitors the performance of its assessors The constraints of the audit system drives with a computer system, which interprets the behaviour, and doctors, nurses or physiothera - data they input while carrying out ESA assess - pists are not free to apply their professional ments. The average results for each practition - judgement as to whether an individual is really er are compared with the average results of fit enough to work. others in the same region and nationally. The management information tool 3 In its original contract, the DWP specified: For the first time, evidence has emerged of a Doctors, nurses or management information tool, a key element of It is estimated that approximately 11 per cent this audit system, which makes it clear why physiotherapists of new customers will fall into the support none of the changes to the WCA have made group. Atos Healthcare must base their solu - are not free to apply much improvement. tions and costs the [sic] figures in Appendix their professional 8. [emphasis added] Table 1 shows the system Atos uses to com - judgement as to pare the output of each practitioner. The fact This is the result the WCA process delivered that deviation from a narrow range of ‘averages’ whether an until the initial review of its operation, 4 after (‘norms’) is not tolerated means assessors which the proportion of people allocated to the individual is really monitor the percentage of cases they have support group rose to 16 per cent. To many, this placed into various ‘outcomes’. Once they have fit enough to work will sound like a target system. placed, say, 15 per cent of claimants into the support group in one week, they are very much In practice, it operates like a de facto target sys - less likely to put the next seriously ill or severe - tem in two ways. First, it guides the outcome of ly disabled claimant they see that week into the the entire process. Second, deviation from the support group, as to do so would take their ‘norm’ is not tolerated and leads to an audit on weekly figures away from the ‘norm’, and risk that individual assessor. Although, in theory, this an oppressive and intimidating audit. is not supposed to be invasive or punitive, in reality assessors fear being placed on audit, as An Atos employee stated: the consequences can be stressful, affecting the performance-related elements of their pay, ‘I feel guilty for doing it, but I need my job and could ultimately result in dismissal. Former with Atos to pay my mortgage and feed my Atos assessor Dr Greg Wood said: children. I have been overtly threatened with

Table 1: Data from the Atos management information tool for one month in 20 13

Below normal range -20% -20% -20% -20% -20% -20% -20% -20% -20% -20% -20% -20% -20% -20%

Above normal range 20% 20% 20% 10% 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 10% 10% 20% 10%

MSC Total Total % in %%% NFD % 3m % 6m % 12m % 18m % 2y % Average Average Average Average number of number of support curtailed support prognosis prognosis prognosis prognosis prognosis longer physical mental PSS time assessments re-referrals group group or term score score word taken curtailed prognosis count

Birmingham 5,098 1,929 12.9 15.6 28.5 0.1 71.3 4.0 11.7 7.1 3.1 2.8 1.5 2.4 191.4 52.6 Bootle 3,455 1,593 22.3 21.1 43.5 0.1 68.9 9.0 16.1 8.9 3.6 3.4 2.4 3.5 202.3 60.5 Bristol 2,591 0825 14.0 23.8 37.7 0.0 59.9 11.3 17.3 5.1 3.0 3.5 2.2 4.8 164.2 48.8 Cardiff 2,544 1,036 12.7 21.8 34.6 0.2 64.0 5.5 16.0 9.3 2.9 2.3 2.4 4.6 200.8 48.9 Scotland 4,433 1,670 14.1 19.3 33.4 0.1 66.0 6.7 13.7 6.1 3.8 3.7 1.8 3.2 198.9 46.4 Leeds 4,604 1,656 16.8 22.0 38.8 0.0 61.9 8.1 18.3 5.7 3.3 2.7 2.0 3.4 192.2 45.9 Manchester 4,172 1,505 13.4 24.7 38.1 0.1 62.2 8.4 17.4 6.4 2.8 2.7 2.2 4.2 196.2 60.7 Newcastle 3,035 1,072 13.6 14.2 27.8 0.1 73.0 4.2 10.2 5.4 3.8 3.3 1.4 2.3 152.3 49.2

Nottingham 5,069 2,222 13.9 22.7 36.7 0.0 63.3 9.9 17.5 4.4 2.4 2.5 2.5 4.1 232.6 48.1 Croydon 2,734 0994 16.9 24.3 41.3 0.1 58.1 11.1 20.7 4.8 3.1 2.3 2.2 4.4 219.5 55.6 Wembley 7,427 2,840 12.2 19.1 31.2 0.1 67.4 6.8 16.7 5.6 2.1 1.3 2.2 3.4 193.6 49.3 National 45,162 17,342 14.5 20.5 35.0 0.1 64.8 7.6 15.9 6.1 3.0 2.6 2.1 3.6 196.5 49.5

mid grey = result is within acceptable range of the norm light grey = result is too far below the norm dark grey = result is too far above the norm

Poverty 147 11 feature The real reason for the misery of work assessments

‘re-training’ and dismissal when my support out. While the official policy at Atos is clear, it is group figures strayed above 20 per cent.’ also clear that, in practice, problems with audit and its use are widespread. Column four demonstrates that there is an expected ‘norm’ for the proportion of people Column five refers to the percentage of cases who can be placed into the support group. Only ‘curtailed’ – those placed in the ‘work-related the assessors in the Bootle centre have gone activity group’, the group of people who may above this, placing 22.3 per cent of all the peo - theoretically be capable of some form of work in ple they assessed into this group. While this the future with the right support and employ - may not seem like a huge proportion to be so ment conditions. This group includes many disabled or sick to receive unconditional sup - people with progressive conditions such as port, it is too high for the audit system to allow. Parkinson’s or Multiple Sclerosis. This column Each assessor is expected to see eight demonstrates that the percentage of claimants claimants each day, of whom they can place an the DWP will allow to be placed in this group average 14.5 per cent – only one person – into without triggering an audit is very low. the support group without triggering a punitive audit process. This 14.5 per cent is an extrapo - Column six is of particular interest. This the lated forecast from estimated national trends. audited norm for the total percentage of people Using national trends to audit at a national level allocated to the support group and ‘curtailed’ is perfectly acceptable, but the system uses combined – ie, all those who have reached the these trends to audit the performance of indi - threshold entitling them to ESA. In this particu - vidual regions and assessors. Put simply, it lar month, the national average for all those takes no account of variation: in an average being granted the benefit is 35 per cent, uncan - day, an assessor might see eight people with nily close to the one-third of people Freud orig - minor lower limb injuries expected to heal with - inally anticipated should be deemed sufficiently in six months, but s/he might equally see eight sick or disabled to be eligible for support. people with cancer who are so severely sick The audit practice is that there is no way they are fit for work or Column seven displays the ‘non-functional’ work-related activity. The norms also ignore descriptors that an assessor uses when a used to attempt to demographic variations in health and disability, claimant does not fit within the framework of influence assessors to the disadvantage of those claiming in areas those normally used. They allow for someone to where levels of sickness and disability are high, be deemed to be not fit for work if working would to alter their results pose risks for her/his health and they apply to So what happens if an assessor sees eight peo - people with conditions as diverse as high-risk ple in a day who all need to be in the support behavioural issues or high-risk pregnancies. group? An Atos Healthcare spokesperson said: These descriptors require a professional assess- ment of risk by a doctor or nurse. There has been ‘There are absolutely no targets set by either considerable effort by campaigners to improve the DWP or Atos Healthcare for decisions on their use, but it is clear from this column why those found fit for work… We do audit all those efforts have had such little impact: the practitioners on a random and rolling basis to national average allowed is just 0.1 per cent, ensure quality and consistency. One way we just one person in every thousand assessed. are able to trigger an audit process is to look at practitioners whose work is significantly Columns eight to 13 demonstrate why there is outside of the average expected ranges over such a problem with ‘revolving door’ assess - a period of time… This is certainly not about ments. This has been one of the biggest causes changing outcomes of assessments nor is it of stress and misery to sick and disabled people about reprimanding our practitioners in any who are recalled for reassessment every six to way. It is about us checking our quality and 12 months. The audit system demands that the making sure you can expect a consistent majority of people being assessed receive a approach to your assessment whoever car - prognosis of three months when they score ries it out.’ ‘sub-threshold’ (automatically generated when a claimant is awarded descriptors which score However, whistle-blowers contradict these fewer than 15 points). In practice, this score claims. They explain that the audit practice is means they are found ‘fit for work’ by the DWP. used to attempt to influence assessors to alter So, the ‘three-month prognosis’ actually refers their results. Dr Greg Wood is on record, to people who have scored insufficient points to explaining it was exactly a demand from an be eligible for ESA. The system only permits 7.5 auditor that he alter his clinical opinion in a per cent of those assessed to be given a prog - report which led him to leave Atos and speak nosis (or re-assessment date) of six months.

12 Poverty 147 feature

The average for a 12-month prognosis is 15.9 Conclusion per cent, 6.1 per cent for 18 months, 3 per cent The evidence gleaned from the original contract for two years and 2.6 per cent for longer than between Atos and the DWP, testimony from two years. Again, we see this rough breakdown Atos employees and Freedom of Information of one-third of people allocated benefit and requests clearly indicates that outcomes for two-thirds refused benefit reflected throughout. ESA claimants are not solely driven by the The sums of money wasted in reassessing peo - severity of their condition or the nature of their ple to a timetable imposed by an estimated disability. On the contrary, as Lord Boswell pre - audited norm, regardless of their actual health dicted in 2007, the imposition of statistical norms condition, should horrify every taxpayer. onto the WCA gears the system to achieve the desired result – in effect, a cap on the overall Moving on to columns 14 and 15, we see why number of people permitted to receive ESA. people are receiving such low point scores at assessments. Assessors’ decisions are audited The use of these statistical norms as a man - to an incredibly low score, is the most likely rea - agement tool within Atos can also be a second - son for auditors to request the kind of changes ary driver of the outcome for each individual. reported by Dr Greg Wood – that he reduce the Although official policy is clear – audit is not descriptor point score of six he had awarded (as supposed to be used as a punitive process – it medically appropriate) to one of zero (as is also clear from whistle-blower evidence that required by the auditor). This auditing process practice often does not equate to policy. Given does not apply to tribunals, however, leaving that audit has been used in a punitive manner, them free to make sensible, legally sound deci - there is a serious risk that the outcome for the sions. Fifteen points overall are required to be claimant – whether s/he is placed in the support scored from the descriptors for a claimant to be group and given unconditional support because There is a serious placed in the work-related activity group and 15 s/he is unable to work, in the work-related activity points on any one descriptor for the support group on the basis that s/he is likely to be able risk that the group. The small number of points an assessor to return to work in the future, or denied ESA outcome for the is able to give without triggering an audit altogether and expected to seek employment – demon-strates why there is such a vast dispar - may actually be driven more by the severity claimant may ity between initial assessments and appeals. An of other claimants’ conditions than her/his own, actually be driven audit may be triggered if the assessor awards particularly those claimants assessed on the the points outlined in the descriptors – ie, if s/he same day by the same assessor. It is also clear more by the severity goes above an average of 2.1 points for physi - that this iniquitous system is causing immense of other claimants’ cal conditions and 3.6 points for mental health distress, hardship and increased ill health for conditions. the very people who most need support, while conditions than at the same time costing the taxpayer many mil - her/his own Column 16, the ‘average PSS word count’, lions of pounds in unnecessary assessments refers to the personal statements introduced and appeals. This evidence and analysis must after the first review of the WCA, intended to be understood by politicians of all parties, since make it clearer to the claimant (and DWP deci - they alone can fix this cruel, wasteful and sion maker) why s/he had or had not met the immoral system and prevent more unnecessary descriptors, and therefore given the points, suffering. If sick and disabled people are to required for receipt of benefit. 5 This was meant receive the support they need – and which a to humanise the explanation, but the audit civilised, compassionate Western society is focuses on whether the number of words falls expected to provide – it is essential reading. ■ within a particular range, rather than the accu - racy, consistency or clarity of the statement. In Kaliya Franklin is a disability rights campaigner and writer, practice, assessors report that the purpose of currently part of Labour’s independent taskforce into the word count is to keep the statements short disability and poverty. and therefore impact less on productivity. 1 http://base-uk.org/sites/base-uk.org/files/[user-raw]/11-07/welfare review.pdf The final column is the average time taken to 2 Timothy Boswell MP, 9 January 2007: http://www.publications. parliament.uk perform an assessment. Human beings, sick - 3 Contract between DWP and Atos Healthcare, Request for Proposal, ness and disability are complicated – both to section 2.2.2, Appendix 8, shows the DWP’s modelling of the explain and to be understood. A genuine caseload, including the 11% estimate for the support group: http:// www.docstoc.com/docs/126689560/DWP-to-Atos-Contract-2010. assessment of fitness to work should take as 4 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/work-capability- long as necessary, not be audited to fit within an assessment-independent-review-year-1 approximate 50-minute window. Hence the 5 See note 4 eight-a-day minimum is onerous and detrimen - tal to both the claimant and the practitioner.

Poverty 147 13 feature How can we reduce child pove rt y without improving its prevention?

The need to prevent child poverty is often acknowledged, but it is astonishing how quickly we slip away into being ‘realistic’ about what can be done now. The hardships of those already l a t i g i d trapped in poverty, of course, call for immediate t r o p e R / d action. But, argues Adrian Sinfield , however r u H

s s e effective the ways of lifting children and families J out of poverty, unless we improve the strategies other questions about the nature of poverty and needed to prevent it from occurring, we will its causes, and so the solutions to it. If paid work is to be ‘the best form of welfare’ to end never make a major impact. poverty, then decent wages have to be paid and the problems which cause people to lose or How can we expect to prevent child leave work need to be tackled. Lisa Harker’s pove rt y better without more decent jobs independent report for the DWP stressed the with fair wages? particular importance of this for helping prevent lone mothers from falling back into poverty. 3 Preventing child poverty requires we give more attention to those families who are not in poverty, The high risk of poverty in families with low-paid and how and why they manage to remain out of workers is considered almost entirely in terms it. The main source of income that keeps most of the characteristics of the worker – why is he, families out of poverty is their employment: 1 and more often she, low-paid? – and rarely in terms of the work – why is this job low-paid? In a society where unemployment is accept - Pursuing that second question raises further ed, great material and social gaps develop, questions of appropriate pay. What is it, for resulting in the mutual isolation and alien - example, about caring for vulnerable people of ation of different groups. Any social order not any age that leads it to be paid so often at or based on full employment must imply a below the minimum wage when other work restriction of living conditions and a squan - receives very much more? Not surprisingly, dering of human resources. Harker picked out the ‘undervaluation of [low- paid service] work and the persistence of the More people are in work today than ever but, at gender paygap’ as major factors maintaining the same time, more of these workers and their poverty in work. 4 families are in poverty: two-thirds of children growing up in poverty have a worker in their The low-pay no-pay cycle not only fails to pre - household. We have neglected what Beveridge vent poverty, but its growth imposes long-term said: full employment means jobs ‘at fair wages, undermining effects on family life and health. 5 A of such a kind, and so located that the unem - better balance between preventing and reliev - ployed can reasonably be expected to take ing poverty would give higher priority to remov - them .’2 ing low pay, very long hours and other family-unfriendly working conditions. The dominant ‘work-first’ strategy absorbs too much attention and deflects us from asking This requires greater engagement with govern -

14 Poverty 147 feature ment and also with employers and their associ - according to [their] powers has at all times an ations, workers and their unions about reason - income sufficient to meet [their] responsibili - able and appropriate reward. We need better ties’. 13 Good and accessible social services are jobs with decent careers and fair wages and also a necessary part of an effective welfare should not just leave it to taxpayers, including state. High-quality childcare and support for poor ones, to subsidise low-paying employ ers. those with disabilities, for example, play an important part in preventing, as well as reduc - Higher rates of child poverty and poor pay tend ing, poverty. Limited alleviation of need for to go together, and low pay is ‘much more com - those seen as most deserving and poor servic - mon in nations where the labour sector is weak, es not only fail to prevent the growth of poverty, government does little to manage the economy they deepen and exacerbate it. in the service of all, and public participation is less than the case in other countries’. 6 Preventive The preventive value of a decent social security policies therefore require a broad, structural system, automatically stabilising demand, help - strategy that connects economic, industrial, ing to maintain consumer spending and so environmental and social policy with specific employment, is considerable and must not be attention to poverty. 7 This is a particular chal - neglected as it has been. By contrast, cutting lenge, given the need to develop preventive basic benefits only undermines other strategies policies that work with and support the neces - to boost the economy, in addition to adding to sary transition to a sustainable economy that poverty and weakening communities. achieves a fairer prosperity without growth. 8 Remarkably little attention has been given to How can we expect to strengthen the how these might be most effectively combined. preventive powers of the welfare state without spending more on it? Limited alleviation How can we expect to improve pove rt y In one of the richest countries in the world we of need for those prevention without strengthening the are constantly told that there is no money, and preventive powers of the welfare state? ‘austerity’ policies demand less public spend - seen as most ing. We have allowed a halving of the analysis of deserving and poor The generosity of the welfare state is the redistribution: who contributes to it and how are dominant cause of how much poverty exists just as important questions as who benefits services not only 9 14 in affluent Western democracies. from it and how. We need progressive redistri - fail to prevent the bution, but the total tax system has long been This is how David Brady concludes that many ‘resolutely proportional’. 15 In fact, the propor - growth of pove rt y, countries ‘socialise the responsibility of pre - tionate contribution of the poorest fifth is mar - they deepen and venting citizens from being poor’ much more ginally larger (36.4 per cent) than that of the successfully than others in his comparative richest fifth (35.4 per cent). 16 The regressive exacerbate it study of the experience of 18 ‘rich democra - impact of council and indirect taxes on those in cies’ over more than 30 years. 10 Similarly, in her or very close to poverty is considerable (31.8 analysis of the European Union, Bea Cantillon per cent for the poorest fifth, 12.6 per cent for finds that: 11 the richest). This is rarely mentioned, while much is made of the large proportion of income … rich, high employment countries where tax paid by the top few per cent of taxpayers. social spending is low end up with high The absurd result is that those on low incomes poverty. This leads to the conclusion that, if it contribute at least as big a share of their income is possible to attain a low risk of poverty with - to the welfare state, defence and everything out substantial spending, it has not yet been else as the richest do. demonstrated. How can we adequately finance a welfare state Countries with lower rates of poverty tend to when the main way of funding it, at best, main - have maintained universal systems with more tains inequalities, undoing much of the progres - effective preventive strategies. Good benefits sive work and depriving it of resources needed are needed to prevent families falling into to strengthen its preventive impact? It is partic - poverty when earnings are interrupted or cease: ularly relevant, but little known, that a major a decent level of benefits enables people to cause of the revenue loss to public welfare is cope and to plan more easily when faced with through a regressive siphoning off to private uncertainty and all the other problems of the welfare for those already well protected against loss of earnings. 12 Total income support should poverty. This largely invisible support through be set above the poverty line and in accordance large tax reliefs and generous occupational wel - with established minimum income standards to fare and pensions with their own tax privileges ensure that ‘every citizen willing to serve goes largely to the better-off, and the best-off in

Poverty 147 15 feature How can we reduce child pove rty ?

particular – an upside-down tax welfare state. a failure to institutionalize equality’. 21 Measures to promote greater equality across all groups The top tenth of the top 1 per cent of taxpayers can help to prevent and tackle the greater risk has 36 times as much income as the average, of poverty, and long-term poverty. Despite some but gains 86 times as much through beneficial improvements, women’s concentration in low- tax reliefs. 17 The losses from these not only limit paid part-time jobs through occupational segre - publicly funded support for the rest of the pop - gation and lack of affordable childcare continues ulation, including the poorest, who lack these ‘to make them more vulnerable to poverty and ‘fringe benefits’, but may even push their tax also make it more difficult for them to establish contributions up if public services are not to themselves in secure, well-paid employment be cut. that protects them from falling back into pover - ty even when in work.’ 22 More, therefore, needs In addition, corporate sleight-of-hand in taxa - to be done to construct a broad equality agen - tion with and without tax havens enables com - da within which specific goals of preventing and panies and many of their senior staff to reduce reducing child poverty can be achieved. their contribution to the common wealth of countries even more. Even official estimates put Before World War One, Richard Tawney pointed the tax gap at very many times the benefits gap out: ‘What thoughtful rich people call the prob - – maybe, £30 billion to £1 billion (and that lem of poverty, thinking poor people call, with ignores the benefit take-up gap). The Tax Justice equal justice, the problem of riches.’ Most pro - Network shows how much more revenue could posals to tackle inequality focus on lifting the be raised without increasing tax rates by clos - lowest incomes closer to the middle. Much ing loopholes and restricting reliefs. could be achieved by moving closer to full employment, higher minimum wages, more on Those on low How can we expect to prevent child or above the living wage and effective collective incomes contribute pove rt y better without significant bargaining. 23 But can we make a major impact reductions in economic inequali ty? on preventing poverty without narrowing the at least as big a The widening and persistence of social and whole income range? share of their income economic inequalities combined with declining social mobility handicap policies to prevent and ‘To recognise inequality as the problem’ rather to the welfare state, reduce child poverty. In forty years, the basic than poverty ‘involves recognising the need for defence and benefit for those out of work has fallen 50 per structural change, for sacrifices by the majority’ cent behind average earnings while the total and acknowledging ‘the limits of conventional everything else as remuneration of the FTSE 100 top executives welfare.’ 24 We need to tackle ‘the elaborate hier - the richest do has risen by at least 1,000 per cent. To make a archy of wealth and esteem, of which poverty is major impact on child poverty we must recog - an integral part’. 25 Action on inequality needs to nise that ‘the welfare state is only a way of ‘close the opportunity gap’ all the way to the redistributing some income without interfering top, reducing the powers of those in control, with the causes of its maldistribution’. 18 which has been little challenged so far. 26

Even the Managing Director of the International How can we make the breakthrough to Monetary Fund acknowledges the importance a close and sustained engagement with of greater equality: 19 the greater and better prevention of child pove rt y? Excessive inequality is corrosive to growth We have to break the political power of the divi - [and] to society… the economics profession sive propaganda of ‘we the people, the taxpay - and the policy community have downplayed ers’, the givers, and ‘them the poor’, the takers. inequality for too long… a more equal distri - ‘Povertyism’ works 27 and has become a signifi - bution of income allows for more economic cant barrier to giving greater attention to broad - stability, more sustained economic growth, er strategies of prevention, and even facilitated and healthier societies with stronger bonds their undermining. It is easier to cut benefits and of cohesion and trust. services for those that the rest of society has been encouraged to regard as ‘undeserving’. So more work needs to be done in analysing Diverting attention from the processes that trap and tackling the broader, structural factors families in poverty reinforces the shame of upstream, ‘the major drivers of poverty, such as poverty and the harm that does to families high levels of wage and wealth inequality’ 20 caught in poverty. ‘The principle of dignity of which undermine preventive policies. treatment lies at the heart of a healthy society and a fair and effective social security system’. 28 ‘Where poverty is widespread… there has been We need to challenge the punitive, stigmatising

16 Poverty 147 feature and shaming tactics that close off discussion of 1 Terms of reference to the Swedish Royal Commission on Long-term prevention with adequate benefits, decent Employment, 1974 2 WH Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society , Allen and wages and greater take-up, and instead focus Unwin, 1944, p18 on individual fault despite the powerful evi - 3 L Harker, Delivering on Child Poverty: what would it take? Department for Work and Pensions, 2006, p40 dence of much research. 29 The Poverty 4 See note 3 Alliance’s Stick your Labels campaign, 5 See the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Recurrent Poverty studies, launched three years ago after all leaders of the especially T Shildrick and others, Poverty and Insecurity: life in low- political parties in Scotland signed a declaration pay, no-pay Britain , Policy Press, 2012 6 D Raphael, ‘The issue is not poor children but family poverty’, 2014, against stigmatising those in poverty and on drawing on Unicef research, www.thespec.com/opinion-story/ benefits, continues to thrive and collect exam - 4299112-the-issue-is-not-poor-children-but-family-poverty/ ples of political and media manipulation. But we 7 SM Miller, ‘Prevention of Poverty’, CROP Newsletter , 6(2), 1999 8 T Jackson, Prosperity Without Growth? The transition to a need to go beyond the defensive and argue for sustainable economy , Sustainable Development Commission, 2009 developing better processes that protect all 9 D Brady, Rich Democracies Poor Societies: how politics explain families against poverty. poverty , Oxford University Press, 2009, p166 10 See note 9, p8 11 B Cantillon, ‘The Poverty Effects of Social Protection in Europe: EU What would a society without child enlargement and its lessons for developing countries’, in P pove rt y be like? Townsend (ed), Building Decent Societies: rethinking the role of social security in development , ILO and Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, This has been asked all too seldom and pur - p240 sued even less. One essential part of any 12 A Sinfield, ‘Strengthening the Prevention of Social Insecurity’, answer has to be more and better preventing of International Social Security Review , 65:1, 2012 13 WH Beveridge, Report on Social Insurance and Allied Services, poverty. Otherwise, Beveridge’s judgement of HMSO, 1942, para 444 the late 1930s is as valid today :30 14 W van Oorschot, The Social Legitimacy of the European Welfare State , Social Policy Association Annual Conference 2008, plenary paper Abolition of want… was easily within the eco - 15 National Equality Panel, An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the nomic resources of the community; want was UK , Government Equalities Office and London School of Economics Action on inequali ty a needless scandal due to not taking the and Political Science Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, 2010, p50 needs to ‘close the trouble to prevent it. 16 R Tonkin and others, The Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income, 2011/12 –Further Analysis and Methodology , opportuni ty gap’ all We need more and better jobs with fair wages Office for National Statistics, 2013, http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp 171766_317895.pdf. Latest figures for 2011/12, average 34.6%. the way to the top, and an end to the low-pay no-pay poverty cycle. 17 My estimate based on Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2008, excluding We need a strong, robust welfare state with the personal allowance. reducing the powers good benefits and high-quality services that 18 GDH Cole, ‘Socialism and the Welfare State’, New Statesman and Nation , 23 July 1955, p 88 (emphasis added) of those in control, prevents people from falling into poverty, a 19 C Lagarde, quoted in D Weldon, Miliband, Obama and Lagarde on social security system strong enough to act as Reforming Capitalism , ToUChstone Economics, 19 February 2013, which has been little an automatic stabiliser, economic and social, to http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2013/02/miliband-obama-and-lagarde- on-reforming-capitalism/ challenged so far prevent further job loss and exclusion – the 20 See note 3, p9 opposite of one being constantly cut that adds 21 See note 9, p6 to the problems. This requires fairer and more 22 E Breitenbach and F Wasoff, A Gender Audit of Statistics: comparing the position of women and men in Scotland, Scottish effective taxation. government , 2007 23 S Lansley and H Reed, How to Boost the Wage-Share , ToUChstone Without more upstream policies to tackle eco - pamphlet 13, 2013 24 RM Titmuss, ‘Poverty vs Inequality: diagnosis’, Nation , 130-133, nomic inequality, downstream support meas - 1965, pp131-32 ures will continue to be swamped. Structural 25 P Townsend, Poverty in the UK , Penguin, 1979, p926 changes are needed to tackle structural prob - 26 D Donnison, ‘Some Ideas for Reversing Britain’s Gross Inequality’, Scottish Review , 31 January 2013, http://www.scottishreview.net/ lems and prevent the preservation and rein - DavidDonnison54.shtml?utm_source=Sign-Up.to&utm_medium= forcement of power in a class-fractured society. email&utm_campaign=287073Prison+a+home+from+home?+Let’s+ We need to make a strong case for prevention, see+how+she+likes+it 27 For example, M Davies, The Effects of Discrimination on Families in as well as vigorously defending against blaming the Fight to End Child Poverty , Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2008 and shaming those on benefits and in poverty. 28 R Walker, E Chase and I Lødemel, ‘The Indignity of the Welfare Reform Act’, Poverty 143, 2012, p12 29 Especially T Shildrick and others, Are‘Cultures of Worklessness’ Without more and better prevention, poverty passed down the Generations? , Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2012 will only spread and deepen. ■ 30 See note 13, para 445 (emphasis added)

Adrian Sinfield is Professor Emeritus of Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh

The article is based on a paper to the Centre for Research into Families and Relationships seminar, Preventing and Ending Poverty , funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Edinburgh, 27 November 2013

Poverty 147 17 pove rt y watch

Child pove rt y projections measure of how many children have fallen too far behind the social norm, this narrowing of the gap Where is child poverty headed between now and between the incomes of middle-income and low- 2020? The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) updated income households reduces the numbers who are its child poverty projections in January 2014 and poor under that measure. they show a mixed picture compared with the last In the case of absolute poverty, though, fluctuations estimates in May last year. in median income do not have an impact. Instead, In May 2013, the IFS predicted that relative child the poverty line is uprated each year in line with RPI poverty would rise from 2.3 million (before housing inflation. Since projections for RPI inflation have costs) in 2011 to 3.4 million by 2020. It has now gone up since May, the absolute poverty line in 2020 revised that second figure down to 3.2 million. At the is a little higher, and thus the number of children same time, though, the number of children in caught below it goes up. absolute poverty is now estimated to increase from As Table 1 shows, though, the overall trend is 2.5 million in 2011 to 4.0 million in 2020, up from the basically unchanged: child poverty is set to increase, previous estimate of 3.9 million. and the target of 2020 looks very unlikely to be So what is going on? The IFS gives a different achieved. The projected increase in absolute poverty answer in each instance. Projections for relative levels helps explain why. This is forecast largely due poverty rates have slightly fallen because, since May, to the expected increase in RPI more than offsetting weaker forecasts for earnings growth have lowered other policies like free school meals for five-to-seven- median incomes more than the incomes of low- year-olds. This shows that what look like small income households. Since relative poverty is a changes can make a big difference over time. The IFS makes clear that what is driving increases in poverty over this Parliament is tax and benefit Table 1: UK child pove rt y projections, May 20 13 and January 20 14 reforms, particularly cuts to support for families with children, and especially changes to how benefits are 20 11/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2020/21 Millions uprated.

Relative poverty, before housing costs: Cumulatively, various changes to uprating – the May 2013 estimate 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.8 3.4 January 2014 estimate 2.3 2.4 2.6 2.7 3.2 freezing of child benefit and subsequent 1 per cent uprating; uprating working-age benefits and the local Absolute poverty, before housing costs: May 2013 estimate 2.5 2.7 3.0 3.2 3.9 housing allowance by the CPI; and three years of 1 January 2014 estimate 2.6 2.9 3.1 3.4 4.0 per cent increases to working-age benefits – mean

Source: Institute for Fiscal Studies, May 2013 and January 2014 that low-income families will lose £23.4 billion over the course of this Parliament, according to Treasury figures. This represents nearly half the total loss from Table 2: Child pove rt y projections by country, May 20 13 and January 20 14 all benefits changes. The impact is accelerating over 20 11/12 2020/21 time: the annual figure rises from £6.7 billion to %%£10.8 billion between 2013/14 and 2014/15. The IFS England and Wales figures tell a story of money being systematically taken out of poor households, year on year. The Relative poverty, before housing costs: May 2013 estimate 17.3 23.4 increases of child poverty are the result. January 2014 estimate 17.5 22.4 The major policy change accounted for in the new Absolute poverty, before housing costs: May 2013 estimate 19.1 27.0 figures is an increase in the income tax personal January 2014 estimate 19.6 27.7 allowance in 2014/15, announced in the Budget Scotland 2013. This primarily benefits middle-income households, who are able to enjoy the full benefit of Relative poverty, before housing costs: May 2013 estimate 17.6 22.7 the increase. Lower-income households benefit less. January 2014 estimate 14.8 20.0 Many do not pay income tax at all, while others do Absolute poverty, before housing costs: not earn enough to reach the new threshold, meaning May 2013 estimate 19.1 27.2 they only gain part of the benefit. Meanwhile, low January 2014 estimate 16.3 25.9 earners who receive housing benefit will see much of Northern Ireland their gains lost through benefit claw-back. While Relative poverty, before housing costs: middle-earner households stand to gain £705 a year May 2013 estimate 23.6 29.7 from raising the threshold from £6,475 to £10,000, January 2014 estimate 21.6 30.9 low earners receiving housing benefit will only gain Absolute poverty, before housing costs: May 2013 estimate 25.1 32.9 £247, as the rest of it will be tapered away. There is January 2014 estimate 25.0 38.5 likely to be a further reduction in gains for low

Source: Institute for Fiscal Studies, May 2013 and January 2014 earners as local support for council tax is tapered

18 Poverty 147 pove rt y watch away. The effect will be to reduce absolute poverty Table 3: Child pove rt y projections by nation, 2020/ 21 (since some low-income households will benefit), but to increase relative poverty (since middle-income Before After Housing Housing households will benefit more, raising the poverty costs costs line). As we have seen, projections for the two are %% actually moving in opposite directions, suggesting England and Wales 22.4 32.4 that changes in income and inflation forecasts are Scotland 20.0 26.2 more significant drivers. Northern Ireland 30.9 35.7

Comparing these differences with housing tenure Source: Institute for Fiscal Studies, January 2014 does not suggest a clear correlation. England and Wales have the highest proportion of households in private rented accommodation, and the highest rate Table 4: Housing tenure by nation, 2 011 of housing-cost-induced poverty. Yet Scotland has Owned both the lowest proportion in private rented Owned with Social Private accommodation and the highest proportion in social outright mortgage rented rented rented accommodation, but its rate of housing-cost- %%%% induced poverty is twice that of Northern Ireland. England and Wales 30.6 33.6 17.7 16.8 Scotland 27.8 33.7 24.3 11.1 Table 2 shows how child poverty growth will vary between the UK nations. There are two major Northern Ireland 32.1 34.8 14.9 13.5 changes here. First, the rate of absolute poverty in Source: 20 11 Census for England and Wales, Scotland’s Census 20 11, Northern Ireland Census 20 11 2020/21 in Northern Ireland is predicted to be significantly higher in these projections than those of due to year-on-year variations in the data, which can last year. The primary reason for this is that have significant effects due to small sample size. In employment growth in Northern Ireland is forecast to each case, however, the general trend is unchanged. lag a lot further behind other parts of the UK than Child poverty levels are rising in each of the UK previously thought. Three-quarters of net job creation countries, and are similar in England and Wales and over the next decade is expected to come from Scotland, but appreciably higher in Northern Ireland. three sectors – professional, scientific and technical Finally, Table 3 shows both the extent of housing- services, administrative and support services, and cost-induced child poverty, and how it varies wholesale and retail – and the first two of these between countries. In England and Wales, housing sectors are relatively under-represented in Northern costs add 44.6 per cent to the child poverty rate, Ireland. Meanwhile, Northern Ireland has a relatively compared with 31.0 per cent in Scotland and 15.5 high concentration of public sector employment, per cent in Northern Ireland. While in each case the which is expected to fall across the UK. difference between rates is substantial, this table The other major change – a smaller reduction in shows that the extent to which housing costs drive relative poverty levels in Scotland – is most likely poverty varies significantly between the nations. ■ l a t i g i d t r o p e R / h t u m l o W

p i l i h P

Poverty 147 19 research review

Does money Overall, the study found that children in lower income families have worse cognitive, social- affect children’s behavioural and health outcomes, in part, because they are poorer, not just because low outcomes? income is correlated with other household and parental characteristics (though it impacts on these to – eg, maternal mental health, parenting and home environment). It found this evidence to Evidence abounds of a strong association between be strongest for cognitive development and household financial resources and a range of school achievement. wider outcomes for children, including in health and education. Yet much less well understood is Regarding how strong the effects of low income the extent to which these associations are based are, the impact on cognitive and schooling on a causal relationship. A new study from the outcomes appears to correlate broadly with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reviews the effects of spending corresponding amounts on research evidence on how far money makes a school or early education programmes. The difference to children’s outcomes. review also found convincing evidence that these effects are strongest further down the income Out of 34 studies that met their strict criteria, 23 distribution: a certain amount of additional showed a significant and positive relationship spending makes more difference to children in between financial resources and each of the child households on lower incomes than those in outcomes they looked at (although not better-off households. necessarily all measures of each outcome). Five studies found no significant causal relationship, None of the studies directly tested whether the and six found an effect for some, but not all, source of income matters for children’s outcomes. In other words, a clear majority of outcomes, though nothing in their findings studies indicate a causal relationship between suggested that the source is relevant. How the financial resources and children’s outcomes. money enters the household, however, is relevant: the one study that examined the Most of these studies were from North America, importance of who within the household received and particularly the US, likely because of its high additional income found that children’s quality longitudinal datasets and long tradition of educational outcomes improved if mothers research in this area. Two studies of the received additional money, but not if fathers did. Minnesota Family Investment Programme, a programme for lone mother families in the mid- The study concludes that this evidence has 1990s, which randomly assigned participants into strong implications for government policy. While three groups, allowed researchers to disentangle cash transfers to poor households are unlikely to the effects of increased income from those of provide a complete solution to the worse employment-related activity. One study found outcomes for children living in poverty, they need that financial incentives had significant effects on to be a central part of those efforts, and those to positive behaviour, on children’s engagement in promote children’s life chances. For example, the school, and reduced maternal depression and impact on cognitive outcomes seems to be domestic abuse, to which the mandatory comparable with the effects identified for employment part of the programme made no spending on early childhood programmes or difference (and indeed appeared to decrease education. But, unlike the latter service spending, children’s social competence and autonomy). boosting household incomes also influences Another study found positive and significant many different outcomes at the same time. effects of the incentives on positive social behaviour and school engagement. In the benefits versus services debate, this research provides strong evidence that the Of four UK studies, two found no significant poverty-reducing effects of cash transfers cannot results, although these both used longitudinal be ignored. Conversely, they show that fixed-effect methods, an approach which seems reductions in household income are likely to have less likely to identify positive results than others. wide-ranging negative effects. In other words, Another study (Gregg and others, 2006) used the cuts to financial support for families for children fact that UK benefit reforms between 1998 and represent poverty-producing policy, in the short 2001 favoured low-income families and those and the long term. ■ with children under 11 to demonstrate significant gains in relative spending among low-income K Cooper and K Stewart, Does Money Affect Children’s households on children’s clothing and footwear, Outcomes: a systematic review , Joseph Rowntree fruit and vegetables, and toys and books; and Foundation, October 2013, available at http://www.jrf.org.uk/ reduced spending on alcohol and tobacco. publications/does-money-affect-childrens-outcomes

20 Poverty 147 last word

ast year , CPAG worked with youth groups to L explore the costs of education. We asked young people about their experiences of school, and especially how not having much money medi - ated both their learning and social lives there. Activities included drawing out what they thought poorer and better-off children would have in their backpacks, comparing what they would have for breakfast and lunch, and sketching the clothes that these different groups of children would wear.

As a result of this exercise, the young people put together a report outlining the impact low income has on their education (see Poverty 145). They were subsequently asked by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty to share their views with parlia - mentarians at an event in the House of Commons.

Eleven-year-old Benjamin and ‘Professor Engineer’ (not their real names) are two of the group of children who recently took part in a CPAG- organised event in Parliament on the costs of education. Here, they describe their day.

Our names are Benjamin and ‘Professor Engineer’, life is a misery because other people think that and we recently went to Parliament to give a he is a poor person who has no money, and powerful speech about the poor and the rich. think that he should be bullied. Afterwards we had pizza. The next issue we will address is lunch money. We really enjoyed the day, and here is the speech The report suggests that an important consider - we gave. It was exciting. It would have been more ation is the price of food. These disadvantaged exciting for me (Benjamin) if I had sat in the big students are not concentrating in class and chair, but Professor Engineer had the big chair. He skipping lunch because they can’t afford it. said it felt good sitting in the big chair. We hope you enjoy reading the speech. Some people try to persuade you that every child in the UK enjoys their rights, but the peo - ‘Rights and Respecting Heroes: an introduc - ple who told you that are not informing you cor - tory speech given by ‘Professor Engineer’ rectly. If you want to know the actual truth of the and Benjamin. UK, listen carefully.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are here today to Many pupils outlined that they couldn’t afford talk about children’s rights to an education. lunch, so they grew skinnier and they were los - Today we will be talking about two issues from ing their concentration. That’s really bad. the seven in the report. If you agree with us, please come and work in The first issue we’ll talk about is uniforms. This our workshops to learn more. report found that not every pupil could afford a uniform. This major controversy is vitally impor - Thank you for listening. We appreciate.’ tant, because it affects pupils’ lives in some way. Please take it seriously. Just because we’re young Students quoted that in school they get bullied people, it doesn’t mean we’re not serious. We by the people who can afford a nice uniform. An want you to do something about it if you can. ■ unknown student quoted that in his school, his

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