A Centre for Social Justice inquiry maps about 3,000 local areas where over half of working‑age adults receive benefits, and reports that almost 900,000 working‑age people are on benefits, highlighting Britain’s scale of worklessness.
Presents new findings that improving household economic security can itself drive productivity growth, positioning economic security as a policy lever for stronger, more resilient economic performance.
Economic analysis
Analysis of US income and wealth since 2000 finds growth across lower-, middle- and upper-income households, but the largest gains accrued to the upper-income group, underscoring rising disparities in relative terms.
Evidence review
A Centre for Social Justice analysis finds a worker on the National Living Wage must work more than 50 hours a week—around six days—to take home the equivalent of combined means‑tested benefits, highlighting weak pay incentives.
Forty-four percent of Americans experienced difficulty affording a basic necessity in the past year, with the burden concentrated among lower-income adults, highlighting widespread cost-of-living pressures.
Survey
Since 2019 an increasing share of Americans who say inequality is too high now believe the economic system must be completely rebuilt, reflecting a shift toward more systemic views of inequality and its remedies.
Survey
Socio-economic differences in who attends university have remained effectively unchanged over the past two decades, with students from less advantaged backgrounds — described as those who would gain most from higher education — still least likely to enrol.
New analysis finds the poorest students gain most from attending university and urges higher education institutions to increase outreach and support aimed at low-income pupils to improve access and boost life-time returns to degrees for disadvantaged groups.
Economic analysis
Argues universities must integrate widening participation across institutions rather than rely on isolated teams, warning that siloed summer schools and programmes will limit universities’ impact on social mobility.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation examines the scale of living standards challenges for Andy Burnham’s area, assessing pressures on low- and middle-income households and options to restore income growth amid the cost of living crisis.
Economic analysis
New Local has published a protected post titled ‘Tackling Poverty – case studies from members’, indicating a members‑only collection of local case studies on poverty interventions but no public excerpt is available.
ONS counted 981,000 16–24-year-old NEETs in April–June 2026, with 393,000 actively unemployed. The number has risen for four years and only Romania now has a higher NEET rate in the EU, the paper argues for urgent labour-market reform.
A webinar launching Destitution in the UK 2026, presenting research on destitution and arguing for bold policy responses; scheduled for Thursday 26 November, 2:00–3:30pm.
Explains what poverty means and how it can be measured, outlining different definitions, indicators and factors that determine poverty rather than offering new empirical findings or policy prescriptions.
The Sutton Trust responds to the Department for Education’s plans to introduce vocational, job‑focussed GCSE subjects, setting out its views on potential impacts on social mobility and attainment from these proposed qualifications.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds poverty remains too high in Scotland with national targets missed, calls for radical change and a stronger role for local government in both delivering poverty reduction and in its relationship with the Scottish Government.
Highlights slowing pay growth, accelerating inflation and a troubling Bank of England outlook for the cost of living, signalling tougher household finances this winter and urging attention to wage, price and policy dynamics affecting living standards.
Sharon Graham of Unite says the frozen personal allowance of about £12,500 would be over £16,000 without recent freezes, arguing low‑paid workers face excessive income tax and NI. She backs progressive taxation and hints at using consumption and ‘sin’ taxes.
This JRF summary of Poverty in Scotland 2026 outlines public attitudes to local government, argues for reform of local funding and urges councils to use all available levers to reduce and prevent poverty locally.