Plumbing the Depths

The Changing (Socio-Demographic) Profile of UK Poverty

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2116241
AutoresDaniel Edmiston (0000-0001-8715-654X, University of Leeds, autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Volume51
Fascículo2
Páginas385-411
Data de publicação2022-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Social Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047279421000180
OpenAlexW3154504295
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências citadas15

Official statistics tend to rely on a headcount approach to poverty measurement, distinguishing 'the poor' from the 'non-poor' on the basis of an anchored threshold. Invariably, this does little to engage with the gradations of material hardship affecting those living, to varying degrees, below the poverty line. In response, this paper interrogates an apparent flatlining in UK poverty to establish the changing profile of poverty, as well as those most affected by it. Drawing on the Family Resources survey, this paper reveals an increasing depth of poverty in the UK since 2010, with bifurcation observable in the living standards of different percentile groups below the poverty line. In addition, this paper demonstrates substantial compositional changes in the socio-demographic profile of (deep) poverty. Since 2010, the likelihood of falling into deep poverty has increased for women, children, larger families, Black people and those in full-time work. Within the context of COVID-19, I argue there is a need to re-think how we currently conceptualise poverty by better attending to internal heterogeneity within the broader analytical and methodological category of 'the poor'. Doing so raises pressing questions about the prevailing modes of poverty measurement that tend to frame and delimit the social scientific analysis of poverty, as well as the policies deemed appropriate in tackling it

Basic needs · Context (archaeology) · Culture of poverty · Demographic economics · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Poverty · Employment and Welfare Studies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Social Policy and Reform Studies