• One in four face fuel poverty, says Consumer Focus, December 2, 2011, BBC News: “The proportion of homes in fuel poverty in England and Wales has risen from 18% to 24% in two years, estimates suggest. Consumer Focus calculated that nearly 5.7 million households are in fuel poverty - when more than 10% of their disposable income is spent on fuel. The watchdog said the issue was particularly acute in Wales, where 41% of households were in fuel poverty…”
• One in four households suffer from fuel poverty, By Donna Bowater and James Kirkup, December 2, 2011, The Telegraph: “New calculations by Consumer Focus show more than five million households are now forced to spend more than 10 per cent of their income on heating and lighting their homes. The previous forecast of 4.1 million households was made before the big six energy suppliers increased huge price rises last summer. The figure has risen 25 per cent from last year when a fifth of homes were struggling with fuel poverty after sharp increases in energy bills in the autumn. It means the Government is unlikely to meet its legal obligation to end fuel poverty within five years…”

Fuel poverty ‘will claim 2,700 victims this winter’, By Mark King, October 19, 2011, The Guardian: “Almost 3,000 people in England and Wales will die this winter because they cannot afford to heat their homes, a report suggests - more than the number killed in traffic accidents each year. Commissioned by the government, the Hills Fuel Poverty Review found that if just 10% of UK winter deaths are caused by fuel poverty - a conservative estimate it claims - 2,700 people will perish as a direct result of being fuel poor. The report also found that between 2004 and 2009 the ‘fuel poverty gap’ (the extra amount those with badly insulated homes and poor heating systems would need to spend to keep warm) increased by 50% to £1.1bn as a result of rising fuel prices…”

• 400,000 children will fall into relative poverty by 2015, warns IFS, By Randeep Ramesh, October 10, 2011, The Guardian: “The government shakeup of the tax and benefits system will result in a further 400,000 children falling into relative poverty during this parliament, leaving Britain on course to miss legally binding targets to reduce child poverty by 2020, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In a bleak assessment of changes in the government’s new social contract, the IFS said the number of children in absolute poverty in 2015 will rise by 500,000 to 3 million. Even worse, by 2020 3.3 million young people - almost one in four children - will find themselves in relative child poverty. This is 2 million short of the 2020 target to reduce child poverty to 10% or less of all children, and represents an increase of 800,000 on the figures for 2011…”
• UK seeing ‘a big rise in poverty’, October 10, 2011, BBC News: “The UK will continue to see a big rise in the number of people living in poverty, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned. The study said 2.2 million children and two million working age adults were living in absolute poverty in 2009-10. It predicts that by 2012-13, this will rise by an extra 600,000 children and 800,000 adults of working age…”

• Four-in-10 disabled children ‘in poverty’, By Angela Harrison, October 6, 2011, BBC News: “Four in 10 disabled children in the UK live ‘in poverty’, according to the Children’s Society. In the population as a whole, about one-in-three children lives in poverty. The charity is calling on the government to rethink planned changes to welfare benefits in the UK, saying more than 100,000 disabled children could lose up to £27 a week. The government says the most severely disabled children will receive more money under the changes. Its Welfare Reform Bill is nearing its final stage in parliament before it becomes law. From 2013, it will bring in a single monthly payment - known as a Universal Credit - which will replace a range of benefits…”
• Four in 10 disabled young living in poverty, report says, By Randeep Ramesh, October 6, 2011, The Guardian: “Four in 10 disabled young people in England are living in poverty, amounting to a ’staggering’ 320,000 children. And the figure will rise because of government cuts to welfare payments, according to a report by The Children’s Society. The charity’s analysis looks for the first time at the additional costs of caring for a child who might be paraplegic, infirm or seriously physically incapacitated, and concludes that the official poverty rates understate the number of disabled children in penury by a total of 32,000. Counting on the basis of a disabled child living in a household with a disabled adult, the figure for those existing in poverty rose to 49%. The Children’s Society says that benefit changes in the controversial welfare reform bill, now being considered in the House of Lords, will cause the disability component of child tax-credit to drop from £54 to £27 a week…”

Pensions: Low-paid ‘face pension poverty’, ONS says, June 22, 2011, BBC News: “Low earners face ‘potential poverty’ in old age because they are not building up pensions or savings to supplement the state pension, a report has warned. Only 16% of men and 27% of women employed full-time on less than £300 a week are in a pension scheme, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Its latest Pension Trends report said that many people are ’stretched’ by the cost of living and are unable to save…”

Homelessness on the rise as recession and cuts bite, By Patrick Butler, June 10, 2011, The Guardian: “Homelessness is rising dramatically for the first time in years in the UK as the effects of the recession are felt, with recent increases in some areas of more than 50% in the numbers of people declaring themselves in need of housing, government figures find. The government data show that 26,400 people approached a local council for housing help in the first three months of 2011, a rise of 23% compared with the same period last year. Less than half of these applications were successful, triggering warnings of growing numbers of ‘hidden’ homeless - people forced to squat or sleep on friends’ sofas after not qualifying for official help…”

• Labour’s final year in power saw child poverty at lowest level since 1980s, By Larry Elliott and Patrick Wintour, May 12, 2011, The Guardian: “Child poverty in Britain fell to its lowest level since the mid-1980s during Labour’s last year in power, according to the latest official figures. Data from the Office for National Statistics released on Thursday said that 20% of children were living in a household below the poverty line in 2009-10, down from 22% the previous year. Although the figures show Labour missed its target of halving child poverty by 2010, campaigners welcomed the improvement during the longest and deepest recession since the second world war. They warned that the downward trend in the number of children in families with an income less than 60% of the national median before housing costs were taken into account was likely to be reversed as a result of spending cuts. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said the return on Labour’s anti-poverty spending had been poor and that the figures showed no narrowing of the gap between rich and poor households…”
• Child poverty figures fell in UK during 2009/2010, May 12, 2011, BBC News: “In 2009-10, 20% of children (2.6m) lived in households classed as below the poverty line, a two per cent decrease on the previous year. Children’s charities offered a cautious welcome to the statistics but warned the future looked bleaker. Ministers say the figures signal a poor return on Labour’s huge investment. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘These figures lay bare the growth of income inequality in the UK which is now the highest it has ever been…’”
• Cuts will force child poverty levels to increase again, says thinktank, By Larry Elliott, May 13, 2011, The Guardian: “Britain’s leading financial thinktank warned on Friday that 300,000 children would be pushed below the poverty line in the next three years as the government’s spending cuts reversed the improvement during Labour’s last years in power. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that after falling to its lowest level in 25 years, child poverty was likely to rise sharply owing to George Osborne’s decision to cut the generosity of state benefits and tax credits. In its analysis of the latest official figures, the IFS said despite 200,000 fewer children living below the poverty line in the year to the 2010 general election, Labour had missed its ambitious target for halving the total by a wide margin and after 13 years went into opposition with income inequality at its widest since modern records began in 1961…”

Welfare pledge to cut child poverty by 350,000, By Hannah Richardson, April 5, 2011, BBC News: “Some 350,000 children will be lifted out of poverty as a result of a single change to the benefit system, the government has said. Replacing six benefits with the Universal Credit would help lift families out of the ‘vicious cycle of poverty and dependency’, it said. It also said it would to take 200,000 children out of the severest poverty. Charities warn benefit changes will put a huge strain on disadvantaged children. The promises comes in England’s newly published child poverty strategy…”

Spending cuts ‘will see rise in absolute child poverty’, By Randeep Ramesh, December 16, 2010, The Guardian: “The government’s radical programme to slash spending will see the first rise in absolute child poverty for 15 years, with almost 200,000 children pushed into penury, according to an analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Tax changes introduced by the coalition government will, the leading independent fiscal thinktank finds, increase absolute poverty by 200,000 children and 200,000 working-age adults in 2012-13. Cuts to housing benefit alone will force a further 100,000 children into poverty. In the next three years the IFS says average incomes are forecast to stagnate and this, coupled with deep cuts in welfare, will see a rise in relative poverty for children and working-age adults of 800,000 and a rise in absolute poverty for the same group of 900,000. The institute directly challenges the government’s claim that the impact of the budget would have no effect on child poverty…”

• Child poverty ‘rises’ among working households, December 6, 2010, BBC News: “Child poverty within working households is rising and now accounts for 58% of all UK cases, a report has found. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report says there are 2.1 million impoverished youngsters in homes where parents are in work - up slightly on last year. Co-author Tom MacInnes said it showed work alone was not the answer to lifting people above the bread line. The Department for Work and Pensions said it was reforming the welfare system to ensure work always paid. Overall, the number of children living in poverty fell to 3.7 million, the report called Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion found…”
• Record levels of poverty among families with wages, By Jonathan Owen, December 5, 2010, The Independent: “A record number of children in the UK are living in poverty despite the fact that one or both of their parents work, according to a new report to be published tomorrow. The figure of 2.1 million is the highest on record - up 400,000 in the past five years, undermining the oft-repeated claim that people simply have to work their way out of poverty. The new figure accounts for more than half of the 3.7 million children living in poverty in Britain today, according to researchers from the New Policy Institute (NPI) who produced the report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). It is perhaps the most damning element of an analysis of the past decade, showing how initial progress in some areas has halted or been reversed…”
• Most children living in poverty are not from workless households, report finds, By Karen McVeigh, December 6, 2010, The Guardian: “The number of children of working parents who are living in poverty in the UK has risen to an unprecedented 2.1 million, a report has found. A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that while the number of impoverished children dropped overall to 3.7 million, the majority are now from homes where a parent or carer is working, accounting for 58% of the total. The number who live in workless households fell to 1.6 million - the lowest figure since 1984 - according to the Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion report…”

• Welfare reforms will lead to ‘extreme hardship’, say campaigners, By Hélène Mulholland, November 11, 2010, The Guardian: “Ian Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, faced a backlash from poverty campaigners today over plans to impose severe welfare penalties on people who are out of work and refuse to take up jobs. Leading anti-poverty charities accused the coalition government of creating a ‘climate of fear’ and exposing families and children to the ‘risk of destitution’ as Duncan Smith outlined tough sanctions as part of a radical shake-up of out-of-work benefits which he said represented a ‘fair deal’ for both the jobless and the taxpayer. Under the changes outlined in a white paper, published today, a work programme will be introduced to help people return to the workforce - with some long-term jobless required to do unpaid community work. But unemployed people who persistently fail to turn up or turned down and refused to apply for jobs will lose their £65-a-week jobseekers’ allowance for up to three years…”
• Facing austerity, Britain unveils welfare cuts, By Sarah Lyall and Alan Cowell, November 11, 2010, New York Times: “A day after violent protests against government proposals to cut education spending and steeply increase tuition for university students, the government unveiled proposals on Thursday for welfare reforms that could penalize Britons deemed to be work-shy and stir further resistance. In one particularly contentious proposal, unemployed people would be stripped of a $100-a-week job-seekers allowance for up to three years if they turn down three job offers - a proposal that drew protests from civic groups. Some economists called the sanctions the harshest ever imposed by a British government…”
• Off the sofa! UK gets tough on welfare, By David Stringer (AP), November 11, 2010, Washington Post: “Britain announced the most radical overhaul in decades Thursday to its once-generous welfare system, pledging harsh penalties for those who refuse jobs and community work service for the unemployed in return for benefit checks. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith unveiled sharp changes to the country’s cradle-to-grave social safety net, which was first introduced after World War II to better protect newborns, families, the jobless and the sick. Critics have long said the British system offered hefty benefits unavailable to other citizens across Europe, the U.S. and other major economies - encouraging some people to snub modest jobs in favor of an easy life on handouts…”

• Housing benefit cuts will ‘push poor out of south’, experts warn, By Randeep Ramesh and Andrew Sparrow, November 8, 2010, The Guardian: “Large swaths of southern England will become off limits to housing benefit recipients in a little more than a decade because of the government’s proposed plans to cut welfare bills - triggering a huge migration of the poor to the north - according to a study by housing experts. The work, by the Chartered Institute of Housing, shows that before 2025 rents on most two-bedroom properties in the south will become unaffordable to those claiming local housing allowance…”
• How Britain’s new welfare state was born in the USA, By Anushka Asthana, Toby Helm, and Paul Harris, November 7, 2010, The Observer: “The gathering was small and discreet and made no headlines at the time - but its significance for the future of our welfare state and for David Cameron’s vision of a ‘big society’ will become clear this week. It was on a warm day in June that Professor Lawrence Mead, who inspired many of the US welfare reforms of the 1990s, strode into 10 Downing Street. The American guru had been invited by Steve Hilton, Cameron’s chief strategist. Also present were senior Whitehall officials from the Treasury and other government departments. They were joined by Neil O’Brien, director of the rightwing thinktank Policy Exchange. Mead was immediately struck by how eager the assembled team was to hear his ideas. ‘I was surprised how interested they were,’ he said. Under detailed questioning, he told his inquisitors that attitudes to welfare in Britain had been characterised by a culture of ‘entitlement’ for too long…”
• Unemployed told: do four weeks of unpaid work or lose your benefits, By Toby Helm and Anushka Asthana, November 7, 2010, The Observer: “The unemployed will be ordered to do periods of compulsory full-time work in the community or be stripped of their benefits under controversial American-style plans to slash the number of people without jobs. The proposals, in a white paper on welfare reform to be unveiled this week, are part of a radical government agenda aimed at cutting the £190bn-a-year welfare bill and breaking what the coalition now calls the ‘habit of worklessness’. The measures will be announced to parliament by the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, as part of what he will describe as a new ‘contract’ with the 1.4 million people on jobseekers’ allowance. The government’s side of the bargain will be the promise of a new ‘universal credit’, to replace all existing benefits, that will ensure it always pays to work rather than stay on welfare…”

• Rise in fuel poverty is a ‘national scandal’, By Graham Snowdon, October 14, 2010, The Guardian: “A senior charity executive has described the increase in fuel poverty as ‘a national scandal’ after official figures released today showed that the number of fuel-poor families rose to 4.5m in 2008, around one in six of all UK households. A fuel-poor family is defined as one that has to spend more than 10% of its income on heating its home to a decent standard. According to the latest data in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) statistics, an extra half a million households fell into this category from 2007-2008. The Annual Report on Fuel Statistics 2010 showed vulnerable households in the UK as a whole - around three-quarters of homes - were especially hard-hit, with fuel poverty in these homes rising to 3.75m in 2008, up by 500,000 from the previous year…”
• Fuel poverty doubles in five years, By Harry Wollop, October 14, 2010, The Telegraph: “With the average British fuel bill climbing to well over £1,000 a year - for many pensioners the largest bill they have to pay all year - a worryingly large number of people are struggling to keep their homes warm. A household is defined as being fuel poor if it has to spend 10 per cent or more of its income on paying to keep the home adequately warm. In 2003 the number of households hit a low of two million, but it climbed to four million in 2007 and then 4.5 million in 2008, the figures for which were published today by the Department of Energy & Climate Change…”

• Child poverty: study shows fifth of UK youngsters severely affected, By Jessica Shepherd, October 15, 2010, The Guardian: “A fifth of seven-year-olds in the UK live in ’severe poverty’ with both parents together earning less than half the average national income, a major report reveals. The government-sponsored Millennium Cohort Study has tracked 14,000 children born at the start of the century to build a picture of how family circumstances determine a young person’s education, health and happiness in Britain. The latest findings are from two years ago, when the children were seven years old…”
• One in three children in Wales live below poverty line, October 15, 2010, BBC News: “Researchers found one in three Welsh seven-year-olds live in a family with less than 60% of the UK’s average household income. But most youngsters are thought to be in excellent health with many friends. The assembly government said tackling child poverty is a ‘top priority’. The research was carried out by the Institute of Education at the University of London and involved a survey of 14,000 children born between 2000 and 2002 from across the UK…”

• Social class affects white pupils’ exam results more than those of ethnic minorities - study, By Jessica Shepherd, September 3, 2010, The Guardian: “A child’s social class is more likely to determine how well they perform in school if they are white than if they come from an ethnic minority, researchers have discovered. The gap between the proportion of working-class pupils and middle-class pupils who achieve five A* to C grades at GCSE is largest among white pupils, academics found. They analysed official data showing thousands of teenagers’ grades between 2003 and 2007. Some 31% of white pupils on free school meals - a key indicator of poverty - achieve five A* to Cs, compared with 63% of white pupils not eligible for free school meals, they found. This gap between social classes - of 32 percentage points - is far higher for white pupils than for other ethnic groups…”
• White British school children ‘worst hit’ by poverty, By Richard Garner, September 3, 2010, The Independent: “Poverty has a far greater influence on the performance of white British pupils at school than any other ethnic group, according to research published today. Figures show a 31 percentage point gap between rich and poor white British pupils obtaining five A* to C grade passes at GCSE compared with just five percentage points for Chinese pupils and seven percentage points for Bangladeshi youngsters. The findings will be unveiled at the British Educational Research Association conference at Warwick University later this morning…”

Green steps ‘hurting people in fuel poverty’, July 12, 2010, BBC News: “People in fuel poverty face being unfairly hit by the costs of investment in energy infrastructure and reducing greenhouse gases, a report says. Such spending may see energy bills rise by 50% - on top of 125% rises seen in the past six years - the government’s Fuel Poverty Advisory Group said. This was ‘regressive’ and would ‘disproportionately’ impact those people on low incomes, it warned. Energy firms should prioritise the fuel poor, the group added. The group also urged the government to guarantee the future of the Warm Front scheme, which offers grants to tackle fuel poverty - defined as spending over 10% of household income on energy bills…”

• Welfare cuts put added health strain on population, June 25, 2010, BBC News: “Analysis of European data showed that a £70 reduction in welfare spending per person is associated with a 2.8% rise in alcohol-related deaths and 1.2% rise in deaths from heart disease. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the UK research team said ordinary people may be paying the ultimate price for budget cuts. One expert added that social support was vital for health. The study comes after the government announced sweeping budget cuts, including reductions in tax credits for families, housing benefit and maternity grants. To pick out the effects of welfare funding on health, researchers looked at government spending in 15 European countries, including the UK, from 1980 to 2005…”
• Budget cuts will affect death rate, says report, By Aditya Chakrabortty, June 25, 2010, The Guardian: “The spending cuts made by the chancellor, George Osborne, in this week’s budget could cause up to 38,000 extra deaths over the next decade, according to academic research published tomorrow. Reductions in welfare payments and the 25% cut in spending across many government departments could lead to an increase in heart attacks and alcohol-related illnesses, according to analysis produced exclusively for the Guardian by an epidemiologist at Oxford University. David Stuckler warns that the announced reduction in overall support for the long-term unemployed, disabled people and families and children, might severely impact people’s health, or even cost them their lives…”

Britain leads in war on poverty, according to US academic, By Randeep Ramesh, March 24, 2010, The Guardian: “Britain’s “war on poverty” has been one of the government’s success stories, eclipsing the achievements of the United States and European neighbours, according to a year-long study by a US academic. Despite claims that Britain is ‘broken’, a book released today in New York highlights that by most measures things have improved for more than a decade. Jane Waldfogel, professor of social work at Columbia University, spent a year examining Labour’s record and found it had turned the tide of child poverty in a way that was ‘larger and more sustained than in the United States’. Her book, Britain’s War on ­Poverty, shows that the number of children in ‘absolute poverty’ had fallen by 1.7 million since 1999. Latest figures show 13.4% of British children remained in ‘absolute poverty’ whereas in the US the figure was approaching 20%…”

• Quarter of adults out of work, official figures show, March 17, 2010, The Telegraph: “A total of 10.6 million people either did not have a job, or have stopped looking for one, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, which indicated that more people than ever before had abandoned the workplace - choosing instead to study, go on sick leave or just give up searching for a job. A record 149,000 left the workforce and became ‘economically inactive’, between November last year and January, the ONS said. These people more than offset the fall in the headline unemployment. Unemployment fell for the third month in a row, dropping by 33,000 to hit 2.45 million. It has yet to breach the symbolic 2.5 million mark, let alone the 3 million barrier that haunted the recessions of the early 1990s and 1980s…”
• UK unemployment records further fall, March 17, 2010, BBC News: “The number of people unemployed in the UK has fallen again, leaving the jobless rate at 7.8%, figures show. Total unemployment stood at 2.45 million for the three months to January, down 33,000 on the figure for the previous three months. But long-term unemployment, covering those out of work for more than a year, rose by 61,000 to 687,000. The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 32,300 to 1.59 million in February. Unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds fell by 34,000 to 715,000, but among the over-50s, joblessness rose by 14,000 to 398,000…”

• Teenage pregnancy rate falls, February 24, 2010, BBC News: “The number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales has fallen by 4%, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). A total of 41,325 women under 18 fell pregnant in 2008, down 3.9% from 42,988 in 2007, the figures show. Of these young women 49% had an abortion, compared with 50% in 2007. The government had pledged in 1999 to halve teenage pregnancy rates among under-18s in England by this year but is widely expected to miss that target. The ONS data shows for every 1,000 girls aged between 15 and 17 in England and Wales, there were just over 40 pregnancies…”
• Teenage pregnancies fall, but not far enough, By Anna Bawden, February 24, 2010, The Guardian: “The government today announced an overhaul of its teenage pregnancy strategy after new figures showed conception rates among under 18s were not falling fast enough. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, 41,325 girls under 18 in England and Wales fell pregnant in 2008, a decline of 3.9% from 2007, while the number of pregnancies among the under-16s fell 7.6% to 7,577. But the decline is far short of the government’s pledge to halve teenage pregnancies by 2010. Ministers committed to halve pregnancies among 15- to 17-year-olds in England from the 1998 rate of 46.6 conceptions per 1,000 girls…”

• Poor children a year behind in language skills, By Warwick Mansell, February 15, 2010, The Guardian: “The vocabulary of children from the poorest backgrounds lags more than a year behind that of their classmates from richer homes by the time they start school, a major new study showed today. The Sutton Trust, the charity which sponsored the research, said the divide was a ‘tragic indictment of modern society’, showing how educational inequality starts young and leaves children from the most disadvantaged homes struggling to keep up throughout their school years. The poorest children face multiple challenges, being less likely to be born to well-educated parents, have a regular bedtime or live with both their biological father and mother, the study found. However, it also concluded that ‘good parenting can triumph’, with families able to limit the effects of poverty by, for example, reading to their children daily…”
• Poor children a year behind when they start school, study says, By Nicola Woolcock, February 15, 2010, The Times: “Children from poor families are already a year behind in vocabulary tests when they start school, according to research published today. It reveals the full impact of upbringing and home life on attainment, and how those from troubled or impoverished homes can fall behind at a young age. Many never catch up with better-off classmates and become stuck in a cycle of underachievement. The report, by the Sutton Trust, highlights the importance of activities such as bedtime stories and taking children to museums and libraries. In isolation, these appear to have a bigger impact on progress than wealth…”

• Poorest in England ‘live seven years less on average’, By Jane Dreaper, February 11, 2010, BBC News: “People in England’s poorest areas live an average of seven years less than those in the richest ones, says a major report on health inequalities. Epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot, says the NHS must spend much more on preventing illness. And he calls for an increase in the minimum wage to allow everyone to have a healthy lifestyle. Health Secretary Andy Burnham has welcomed the government-commissioned report and said more work was needed. The Marmot Review shows that although life expectancy has risen in poor and rich areas, inequalities persist…”
• Well-off people ‘live seven years longer than those in poorer groups’, By Kate Devlin, February 11, 2010, The Telegraph: “Ministers must act to reduce the gulf between rich and poor, the review, commissioned by the Department of Health, says. Targets to raise life expectancy should be set across each different social class, and updated every 10 years, it recommends. It also suggests parents should be able to share a year of paid leave after having a child, at a level high enough to sustain a healthy life. Action is needed to improve the health of all, according to the report by Prof Sir Michael Marmot, from University College London, but particular attention should be paid to those on the bottom rungs of the social ladder…”

Save the Children says severe child poverty ‘going up’, January 26, 2010, BBC News: “The number of UK children living in “severe poverty” rose in the four years before the recession, research from a children’s charity suggests. Save the Children says the number of children in homes in this category rose 260,000 to 1.7m from 2004 to 2008. The report warns there is a danger that severe poverty could rise even further. The government says it has lifted half a million children out of relative poverty, and helped the very poorest, as defined by its own criteria. It has pledged to halve child poverty by 2010 from the 1998/99 figure of 3.4 million and end it altogether by 2020…”

• 2m pensioners live in poverty, says ONS, By Hilary Osborne, January 27, 2010, The Guardian: “The number of pensioners living in poverty in the UK fell by nearly a third in the 10 years to 2007/08, official figures showed today, but there were still an estimated 2 million living below the breadline. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the number of pensioners in poverty had fallen from 2.9 million in 1998/99, but that 2 million were still living on less than 60% of the median UK income after housing costs. The figures also showed that around 1 million people aged over 60 and living alone in England were in fuel poverty in 1997, meaning they had to spend more than 10% of their income on heating. Hefty rises in energy prices in 2008 mean many more pensioners are likely to have fallen into fuel poverty since then…”
• Pensioner poverty ‘drops by a third’, January 27, 2010, BBC News: “Poverty among pensioners shrank by almost a third between 1998-99 and 2007-08, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. There were 2.9 million poor pensioners 11 years ago, but their number had dropped to two million two years ago. Poverty is officially defined as living on 60% of the average income, once housing costs have been paid. However, the ONS also said that in 2007 one million single person households, aged 60 or over, were in fuel poverty. Fuel poverty is defined as a situation where someone needs to spend at least 10% of their income on heating their home…”

More youngsters from poor homes go to university, By Hannah Richardson, January 28, 2010, BBC News: “More of England’s poorest youngsters are going to university, but the wealthiest are three times more likely to win a place, a report says. Youngsters in the poorest areas are 30% more likely to go to university than they were five years ago, England’s university funding agency Hefce said. A fifth of the poorest youngsters go to university, up from an eighth in 2004. This compares to 57% of the richest. Ministers said ‘record investment’ was helping more people go to university. The report by Hefce statisticians looks at trends in the university participation of 18 and 19-year-olds between 1994 and 2010…”

• Bill aims to help borrowers break cycle, By Cathy McKitrick, January 8, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “At his own insurance agency, Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, got a first-hand look at the tactics some payday lenders use to attempt to collect debts at a borrower’s workplace. ‘It got my attention,’ Dunnigan said of the multiple calls to one of his employees — even after Dunnigan had asked them to stop. The lawmaker crafted HB15 to restrict that practice and also to extend a hand to folks who are drowning in debt. His bill, backed by the Legislature’s Business and Labor Committee, would limit loan rollovers to 10 weeks instead of 12. It also would allow borrowers to request extended payment plans to get a handle on their debt. Supporters of the effort, including an industry association, praise HB15 as what could be a significant improvement over current law. But critics denounce it as window dressing…”
• Poor fall victim to loan sharks over Christmas spending, January 15, 2010, BBC News: “Some of the UK’s poorest people are starting the new year in severe debt after borrowing from loan sharks to pay for Christmas, a report has said. The Financial Inclusion Centre said 100,000 families had borrowed a total of £29m from illegal moneylenders. The think tank said on average it would take a year to pay the money back as lenders recouped three times the value, with some interest rates up to 1,500%. The average amount borrowed was £288, but the average repayment was £820…”

• Poorer pupils to be given free laptops, January 11, 2010, BBC News: “A scheme to give free laptops to pupils from poor backgrounds is being rolled out to 270,000 families in England. The £300m Home Access scheme, first announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008, has been piloted in two local areas. It will allow some of the most in need children, those in care and from the poorest homes, to apply for a grant for a free laptop and broadband connection. It aims to help bridge the achievement gap between rich and poor pupils…”
• Free laptops with broadband to be provided to 250,000 low-income households, January 11, 2010, Telegraph: “The Prime Minister said the £300 million project would see every family in the country linked to their children’s schools to access progress reports on attainment, behaviour and other needs. As well as helping pupils with homework, trials of the scheme had also proved invaluable to single parents with finding work and keeping in touch with friends, Mr Brown said. He hailed the national rollout of the scheme in a speech to education ministers and professionals from around the world meeting at a forum in London…”

• Poverty in Britain is at a nine year high, says Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, By Christopher Hope, December 3, 2009, The Telegraph: “The Tories said the report was an indictment of the Government’s failure to tackle low earnings and blew ‘Labour’s hollow claim to be the party of poverty.’ The study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that the gap between the haves and have-nots started growing in 2004, long before the recession began. The foundation’s report found that the number of people living in ‘low income’ households was now 13.4 million, the highest level since 2000 when it was nearly 14 million. A low income household is one that lives on less than 60 per cent of the average UK household income in the year in question - after housing costs and council tax. For a family of four it is £14,560 a year. The annual report into poverty in Britain also found that nearly one in eight people of working age are out of work - the highest proportion since Labour came to power in 1997. Repossessions were now back at the level they were in 1994, the study said…”
• Poverty on the rise, says Joseph Rowntree report, December 3, 2009, BBC News: “Poverty has been rising in the UK since 2004 and is now at the same level as the start of the decade, a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says. The group said that issues of unemployment and the repossession of homes had become more acute before the recession started. It said long-term solutions were needed to reverse the poverty trend. But the report also pointed to improvements over the last decade, such as a decreasing fear of crime. It added that 11 to 16-year-olds were getting better basic school results, and there were fewer youngsters thrown out of school. The rate of premature deaths is falling and infant mortality has also dropped over the past 10 years…”

• Persistent poverty in Northern Ireland ‘twice that of Great Britain’, November 12, 2009, Belfast Telegraph: “The level of persistent poverty in Northern Ireland children is more than double that of those in Great Britain, it was revealed today. High levels of unemployment, disability, lower wages and poor quality part-time jobs were to blame, a study for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) discovered. A fifth of families in Northern Ireland experienced persistent poverty compared to a tenth in Great Britain in recent years. Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, called for action by the Assembly…”
• NI has worst child poverty in UK, November 12, 2009, BBC News: “The level of persistent child poverty in Northern Ireland is more than double that of the rest of the United Kingdom, new research has found. The study, by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, found that high levels of unemployment, disability and poor quality part-time jobs were to blame. The charity defines poverty as the experience of a family with an income which is 60% below the UK average…”

Children slipping back into poverty, By Rachel Williams, November 3, 2009, The Guardian: “Children in affluent areas are sinking into poverty after a third of the gains made over the last eleven years in getting families into work were wiped out in just 12 months, a new study warned today. One in five - two million - British children now live in households where neither parent has a job, a rise of 170,000 since 2008, the Campaign to End Child Poverty said. If unemployment continued to rise as forecast, the number could return to levels of a decade ago, when Tony Blair made his flagship pledge to eradicate child poverty by 2020 and halve it by 2010. The number of children in jobless households, two thirds of whom face poverty, had fallen by a half a million - nearly a quarter - between 1997 and 2008…”

• Fuel poverty ‘continues to rise’, October 21, 2009, BBC News: “Up to 4.6 million households in England could be in fuel poverty in 2009, new figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change show. The government has vowed to end fuel poverty in England by 2016. Fuel poverty is defined as those who spend more than 10% of their household income on heating their homes. The projection comes within data that reveals the number fuel-poor households in the UK rose from 3.5 million in 2006 to four million in 2007. The data, based on the latest figures for England and Scotland along with extrapolated estimates for Wales and Northern Ireland, suggest that 16% of all UK households were in fuel poverty in 2007…”
• Households in fuel poverty to hit 4.6m, By Sandra Haurant, October 21, 2009, The Guardian: “The number of households living in fuel poverty in England is likely to reach 4.6 million by the end of the year, figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) showed today. A household is said to be “fuel poor” when more than 10% of its income is spent on fuel to maintain an “adequate level of warmth” - usually 21C in the living area and 18C in other rooms. The latest figures show that 3.25 million households in the UK lived in fuel poverty in 2007, an increase of half a million compared with 2006. In England 2.8 million households were fuel poor in 2007, up from 2.4 million in 2006. The DECC said the jump in fuel poverty was caused by an increase in fuel prices, which continued to soar in 2008…”

Two million children now in homes with no working adult, By Katie Allen, August 26, 2009, The Guardian: “Almost 2 million children now live in households where there is no working adult, according to official figures released today that lay bare the social effects of the recession. The Office for National Statistics said the number of children in workless households rose by 170,000 to 1.9 million in April-June of this year, compared with the same period last year. One in six children now live in homes where there is no adult in employment. In addition, the number of children in homes with both working and workless adults over 16, also rose, up 45,000 to 3.6 million. That number includes students, retired people or those looking after the home…”

• Benefits system has failed poor pensioners, say MPs, By Phillip Inman, July 30, 2009, The Guardian: “Means-tested benefits have failed to lift more than two million pensioners out of poverty, according to a group of MPs who are calling on the government to make a bigger effort to increase the incomes of poor people in retirement. A further one million pensioners live on less than 50% of average incomes, the report found, highlighting the increasing divide between those over-65s without private savings and workers in generous final salary pensions who can enjoy incomes equal to 80% to 90% of their pre-retirement salary when state benefits are included…”
• Pensioner poverty ‘unacceptable’, July 29, 2009, BBC News: “It is “unacceptable” that two million pensioners in the UK are still living in poverty, a group of MPs says. The Work and Pensions Committee says the figure is a third lower than it was in 1997, but wants ministers to commit to ending pensioner poverty altogether. It is also calling for the benefits system to be simplified for older people and the compulsory retirement age of 65 to be scrapped…”

• Thousands ‘facing fuel poverty’, July 12, 2009, BBC News: Rising unemployment and higher energy prices are likely to push hundreds of thousands more homes into fuel poverty, a key government advisory body says. The Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG) says about 4m households in England are already in fuel poverty, spending more than 10% of their income on energy…”
• Damning report condemns lack of action on fuel poverty, By Lauren Thompson, July 13, 2009, The Times: “Rising unemployment, high energy bills and the cost of “green” measures could push hundreds of thousands more households into fuel poverty, a Government advisor warned today. There are already 4 million households in fuel poverty – where one tenth or more of income goes on gas and electricity bills – compared with 1.2 million in 2004. Almost half of fuel-poor households are pensioners…”

• Lone parents to be offered better pay incentives to work, By Patrick Wintour, July 5, 2009, The Guardian: “Unemployed lone parents are to be offered increased pay incentives to work in a move which softens some of the most controversial measures in the welfare reform bill. It is one of a number of measures being taken by the work and pensions secretary, Yvette Cooper, that subtly change the emphasis pursued by her predecessor, James Purnell. She insists her changes are designed to protect the family. The government’s welfare reforms have created controversy, since they require lone parents with children as young as three to prepare for the world of work during the recession, or lose benefits…”
• Cutting benefits of single parents will increase number of kids in poverty, By Clinton Manning, July 8, 2009, The Daily Mirror: “Slashing benefits of single parents who don’t look for work will increase child poverty and family hardship, a report has warned.  Gingerbread, the charity that represents lone parents, wants ministers to abandon the “big stick” of benefit sanctions proposed in the Welfare Reform Bill…”

• Costs hit low income households, By Steve Schifferes, June 30, 2009, BBC News: “The cost of living for those living on minimum household budgets is rising faster than inflation, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has calculated.  It says that the costs for a single household on its low-income budget were up 5.3% this year, with rises of 5% for pensioners and couples with children…”
• Rising cost of basic essentials ‘hitting poorest hardest,’ By Mary O’Hara, July 1, 2009, The Guardian: “The rising cost of everyday staples such as food and public transport during the recession has hit the poorest hardest, a study reveals today.  The latest Minimum Income Standard (MIS) report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) concludes that the basic amount an individual needs to earn to have an acceptable standard of living has gone up by twice the rate of inflation, leaving more people struggling…”