Understanding Financial Hardship
3 August 2022
When our pop-up foundation launches later this year, the focus of giving will be financial hardship in the UK.
Though this focus was selected before the Open Philanthropy programme got started, it is an increasingly relevant area of need due to the cost of living crisis, and as such we feel a real responsibility to ensure that evidence we provide to our funding panels is accurate and complete.
A full draft report outlining our current understanding of financial hardship is available below.
Later in the year, this report will be adapted into a fully accessible, key source of evidence for our grant making panels to consider as they decide how to award funding. It will be supplemented by further evidence (including live presentations, videos, and research papers) from those with professional or lived experience of financial hardship, as well as any further evidence that panellists decide they need to make informed decisions.
Senior Consultant
Naomi works within NPC’s Research and Consulting team as a Senior Consultant.
Our current understanding
Key findings within this report include that:
- The groups disproportionately affected by financial hardship are families; those experiencing or at risk of homelessness; care leavers; women; disabled people; asylum seekers and those with No Recourse to Public Funds; and ethnic minorities
- The pandemic and the cost of living crisis have exacerbated existing inequalities in relation to financial hardship, rather than radically changing who is affected
- A lot of work takes place in the charity sector to address financial hardship, but barriers to accessing services, gaps in provision, and flaws in service design prevent these interventions from being as impactful as they could be
Financial Hardship Report
This paper was developed as part of the Open Philanthropy programme at NPC, which seeks to demonstrate that philanthropy can be done in the open, and that this can bring huge benefits, including greater efficiency, collaboration, inclusion and shifting power.
The aim of this paper is to summarise our current understanding of financial hardship in the UK, to help inform our funding panels. This work is iterative, and will not be the only evidence used by the panels. It is instead intended as a starting point to highlight areas of further interest to research.
Share your thoughts
What resonates – or doesn’t – in our current research?
Get in touch by commenting below or emailing Naomi.Chapman@thinkNPC.org.
Introduction
NPC is the think tank and consultancy for the social sector. Across our work, we help charities, foundations, philanthropists, impact investors, social enterprises, corporates, and the public sector to maximise social impact in the lives of the people they serve.
This paper was developed as part of the Open Philanthropy programme at NPC, which seeks to demonstrate that philanthropy can be done in the open, and that this can bring huge benefits, including greater efficiency, collaboration, inclusion and shifting power. Our overall aim is to power up grant making so it is better informed, better coordinated, more efficient and more equal to the task of tackling major issues. As part of this programme, we will be launching a pop-up foundation in Autumn 2022 to test some of our hypotheses, awarding £500,000 in grants to the financial hardship sector.
Financial hardship was selected as a sector to receive funding over a year ago, as part of the planning for this programme. Since then, the cost-of-living crisis has emerged, creating even more urgency. NPC is delivering a wider programme of work in response to the cost of living crisis, with the first cost of living report.
Specific positionality statements for the researchers involved in this work can be found in the endnotes[i].
The aim of this paper is to summarise our current understanding of financial hardship in the UK, in order to help our funding panels to make informed decisions on funding. This work is iterative and will not be the only evidence used by the panels. It is instead intended as an overarching starting point, from which panels can identify areas of interest in which to receive further evidence.
What is the current situation of financial hardship in the UK?
- 1 in 6 people are in absolute low income before housing costs, rising to 1 in 5 after housing costs. [1]
- Overall rates of poverty have changed relatively little since the millennium (c22% of population). [2]
- Deep poverty (those living more than 50% below the Minimum Income Standard) has increased in the last two decades, with 4.5million people (7% of the population) now living in the deepest forms of poverty. [3]
- More than half of families on Universal Credit or legacy benefits live in poverty. [4]
Top local authorities by local hardship grants awarded
- Edinburgh
- Kensington & Chelsea
- Lambeth
- Cornwall
- Birmingham
- Lewisham
- City of Bristol
What are the main causes of financial hardship and who is being disproportionately affected?
The main causes of financial hardship are:
- Problems with the benefits / welfare system, including insufficient levels of support, cuts to services, debt deductions and sanctions, benefits caps, and barriers to accessing benefits
- Entrenched pay inequalities, meaning that in work poverty persists and disproportionately affects set groups. These include insecure contracts and low wages.
Other factors affect the extent to which these factors lead to financial hardship, such as ill health, relationship breakdown, redundancy or cuts to working hours, weak local economies, and inherited poverty.
Specific groups face specific challenges and causes in relation to financial hardship. Though we have separated these out into specific groups, it is important to note that intersectionality between these elements creates complex situations in individual cases – for example, the experiences of disabled women in relation to financial hardship are different from both that of women and that of disabled people more generally.
Families, children and young people
| Current situation | Causes |
|---|---|
| 3.9 million children in the UK live in poverty.[6] | Lack of policy focus: between 1998 and 2003, child poverty was a specific government priority and the number of children in poverty fell by 600,000. [12] |
| Poverty rates are higher for families with three or more children (47%). [7] | Low wages and high childcare costs lead people to leave the workforce. |
| Almost half of children are living in families who are unable to meet the costs of some basic necessities. [8] | Council spending on vulnerable children has halved in the last decade. [13] |
| Parents have a relative poverty rate of 25% compared to 18% for working age adults without dependent children. [9] | Two child benefits cap |
| Financial hardship disproportionately affects single parents. [10] | |
| During Covid-19, 9% of single parents (62% of whom are women) say they have had to cut their hours or stop working to care for children or others. [11] |
Those experiencing or at risk of homelessness
| Current situation | Causes |
|---|---|
| There are 1.1million people on the waiting list for social housing. [14] | Rising cost of living set against low pay and deterioration of benefits including Local Housing Allowance |
| Homelessness increased by 7% between 2019/20 and 2020/21. [15] | Lack of investment in social housing |
| 7% of private tenants were in arrears in May 2021 (four percentage points higher than in 2019). [16] | End of the Covid-19 eviction ban |
| 22% of households at risk of homelessness had at least one person in work. [17] |
Care leavers
| Current situation | Causes |
|---|---|
| Young care leavers disproportionately experience homelessness, loneliness, unemployment and poverty. [18] | From 2015 to 2020, benefits cuts led to increased child poverty, which led to 10,000 more children in care. [20] |
| 41% of care leavers are not in education, employment, or training on their 19th birthday. [19] | Lack of family support networks |
| Early age of independence | |
| Disrupted education |
Women
| Current situation | Causes |
|---|---|
| 22% of women have a persistent low income, compared to approximately 14% of men. [21] | Higher level of unpaid work and caring responsibilities |
| 55% of young women surveyed by the Young Women’s Trust are unable to work as many hours as they like due to unpaid responsibilities. [22] | Fear of engaging with support and having children taken away |
| Women from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to face persistent poverty and may be more likely to be single parents, to have large families, low paid or unemployed. [23] | Entrenched lower income limits ability to hold assets and build savings |
| 70-80% of the users of Lightning (a platform for accessing hardship funds) are women, largely single mothers. [24] | A higher proportion of women rate themselves as less confident about finances |
| Violence against women and girls incorporating economic abuse that leaves individuals vulnerable |
Disabled people
| Current situation | Causes |
|---|---|
| Nearly half of all individuals in poverty live in a household where someone is disabled, and a quarter of unpaid carers live in poverty. In total, a quarter of working age disabled people are in deep poverty. [25] | To enjoy the same standard of life, disabled adults face extra costs of £583 per month. [27] |
| Two thirds of disabled people that live alone live in poverty. [26] | One in five faces extra costs of over £1,000 a month, even after welfare payments intended to meet those costs. [28] |
| Families with disabled children face average extra costs of £581 per month. [29] | |
| There is a significant pay gap for disabled people, seen across every level of qualification: disabled people are more likely to be under-employed or in low paid jobs. [30] | |
| Disability benefits in the UK have fallen from around 25% of average earnings to 15%. [31] | |
| The employment pay gap for disabled women is 36% (average median gross earnings compared to a non-disabled man), totalling an equivalent earnings difference of £7,020 per year. [32] |
Asylum seekers and those with no recourse to public funds
| Current situation | Causes |
|---|---|
| A fifth of destitute households are migrants, primarily due to the no recourse to public funds condition (NRPF) [33] | NRPF restricts access to benefits that are classed as public funds, including Universal Credit, Pension Credit and Child Benefit. |
| 48% of families with NRPF are currently behind on rent, compared to 15% of families generally . [34] | Originally asylum support rates were set at 70% of income support, on the grounds that housing and utility costs are covered separately, but have fallen below these rates. |
| It is estimated that 1.4million people have NRPF, but formal data is not collected. [35] | Joint Committee on Human Rights (2007) found that the government is "practicing a deliberate policy of destitution" , but asylum seekers report a preference to endure long periods of destitution rather than return to countries of origin. |
| Food parcel demand from families with NRPF has doubled since 2016/17. [36] | Joint Committee on Human Rights (2007) found that the government is "practicing a deliberate policy of destitution" , but asylum seekers report a preference to endure long periods of destitution rather than return to countries of origin. |
| In 2020/21, 21% of families who requested support from social services had NRPF. [37] | Many are afraid to use healthcare or benefits to which they are entitled for fear of being charged or data being shared with the Home Office. [39] |
Ethnic minorities
| Current situation | Causes |
|---|---|
| Income poverty rate varies significantly by ethnic groups: Bangladeshi (65%), Pakistani (55%), black Africans (45%) have the highest rates; black Caribbean (30%), Indian (25%) white Other (25%) and white British (20%) have the lowest rates. [40] | History of slavery and ongoing legacy of systemic and institutional racism stigmatises Black households |
| White British poverty rates are similar across the country, but for ethnic minority groups rates are much higher in inner London, the English North and the Midlands. [41] | Disparities in income and wealth between Black households and households of other races and ethnicities. |
| 46% of BAME children compared with 26% of children in White British families are in poverty. [42] | Structural racism and discrimination continue to restrict job opportunities and wage levels for Black workers. |
| 45% of users of the Lightning platform (for accessing hardship funds) are from minority ethnic backgrounds. [43] | Black workers are paid 16% less than white workers (up from 10% in 2000). [44] |
| Differences in age, family type, and family work status account for ~50% of the “excess” poverty rates for ethnic minority groups. [45] |
How is the financial hardship landscape changing due to Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis?
The effects of Covid-19 overall
The pandemic saw a drop in household income for around a third of all UK adults[46]. 230,000 private renters fell behind on rent[47]. School closures exacerbated attainment gaps that will contribute to longer term financial inequality, as well as preventing disadvantaged children from accessing free school meals. For those experiencing financial hardship, access to support was restricted, including to community centres, libraries, health centres and social networks.
The effects of Covid-19 on specific groups
| People with Disabilities | Ethnic Minority Groups | Women | Job Seekers | Migrants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| More likely to be restricted from work due to shielding requirements | Over-represented in the workforce of sectors that had to shut down | Many forms of domestic violence increased during the pandemic | Applying for National Insurance numbers was delayed during the pandemic, preventing individuals from entering the workforce | 20% of migrants who were working prior to Covid-19 lost their job during the pandemic, rising to 44% of those working in cleaning and hospitality. [53] |
| Those on legacy benefits were excluded from the Universal credit uplift | More likely to be self employed | Pakistani and Bangladeshi women faced the lowest pay rates of any ethnic group. [51] | Significant delays were seen in accessing Universal Credit | Migrants with NRPF were 52% more likely to say it was not possible to safely self isolate in their homes. [54] |
| Now facing higher costs, reduced income, and new labour market challenges | More likely to be working outside of their homes during the pandemic - increasing health risk | 7 in 10 women were refused furlough, with disproportionate impacts on young and ethnic minority women [52] | ||
| 63% of disabled male workers and 67% of disabled female workers had employment affected due to Covid-19 (compared to 43% and 50% of non-disabled workers respectively). [48] | Less likely to have a partner in paid work | |||
| 25.5% of unpaid carers increased caring responsibilities during Covid-19. [49] | Less likely to have savings to cover financial hardship | |||
| Racism increased during the pandemic, with those from ethnic minorities seven times more likely than white people to be fined for violating lockdown rules. [50] |
The cost of living crisis
The cost of living crisis is likely to exacerbate existing inequalities and increase financial hardship for those already struggling: the National Institute for Economic & Social Research (NIESR) warned that economic destitution would hit a further 250,000 UK households in 2023, bringing the total number of those in “extreme poverty” to roughly 1.2 million.[55]
What is being done to stop financial hardship occurring?
While the situation for financial hardship may seem bleak, many organisations and individuals are working hard to prevent it from occurring and to reduce its effects. Key areas of voluntary sector activity include:
- Lobbying for uplifts and expansion of benefits scheme
- Advocacy with employers for improvements in employment practices
- Advice services supporting individuals to access full benefits to which they are entitled, as well as to find work
- Support and advocacy services helping individuals to communicate with statutory bodies such as the Department for Work and Pensions and the Home Office
- Support services for those in acute financial hardship, including small cash grants, fuel banks and food banks
- Legal work that sees charities adopt “test cases” to showcase individual rights in relation to financial hardship, which can then be used by others to advocate for their rights
- Data and measurement work looking to better understand the scope of financial hardship and use data to encourage radical action
- Preventative work, looking at supporting individuals upstream of falling into financial hardship
Across the sector there is an increased focus on tackling the root causes of financial hardship, rather than treating the symptoms.
There is also a focus on increased collaboration between stakeholders, such as:
- The Commission on Social Security, a collaboration of those with experience of the social security system, that has developed radical proposals for a decent social security system
- A collaboration between the Oak Foundation (a funder) and Toynbee Hall (a charity) to develop and trial solutions to problem debt
- In Luton, a collaboration between the public, private and voluntary sectors to eradicate poverty in Luton by 2040, with a clear collective strategy and pledge for action
Where are the gaps in current provision?
Gaps in current provision
- Campaigns: there is a need for coordinate campaigns that aim to drive up wages and overhaul the social security system, as the two major structural factors that cause financial hardship.
- Lack of capacity: nationally, financial hardship support struggles with a lack of capacity. However, funding and provision is also geographically unequal, creating a postcode lottery. There is too little funding for work that tackles the root causes of financial hardship, and limited capacity for systems change work.
- Specific services: debt advice, general advice services, community law services, mental health provision / psychological support, provision of affordable internet access, housing provision, and community transport.
- Cash grants to individuals: awarding unrestricted money directly to individuals to spend on alleviating financial hardship, or on escaping conditions that are causing their hardship such as domestic violence.
Barriers to accessing support
Where provision does exist, there are numerous barriers that prevent those experiencing financial hardship from accessing support. These include:
- Awareness barriers: the Resident Voice Survey showed that 60% of people didn’t know that help would be available to them in the event of a financial struggle, exhibited high levels of worry, and reported low levels of agency [57]. Many individuals with No Recourse to Public Funds automatically assume they are not eligible for support. Support that is available is often hard to find and only visible if you are already accessing support through related providers. Many in financial hardship often feel a sense of stigma in accessing support.
- Accessibility barriers, including inaccessibility due to health conditions/disabilities, need for chaperones, lack of support in languages other than English, and support only being offered in urban centres. Additionally, a lot of support is designed to be generic / cover a broad audience, which deters those with specific needs or experiences that need to be taken into account.
- Practical barriers: often support requires an internet connection to access, or requires an individual to fill out complicated forms with a high burden of evidence. Many schemes need an individual to be referred from a support worker, which can be hard for those without an existing relationship; or requires an individual to be on (for example) Universal Credit, which excludes those outside of the benefits system. Overall, people are often in financial hardship because they struggle with systems, so support should try to minimise these formal barriers. Following Covid-19, a lot of face to face support still hasn’t resumed.
- Barriers unique to financial hardship: those on benefits often do not pursue support for fear of having their benefits cut. Those with limited financial hardship often can’t afford to attend appointments.
However, practitioners interviewed also set out that these barriers are often an intentional response to the fact that there isn’t enough support to go around, so barriers reduce demand (although inequitably). Barriers faced are highly personal and will often be affected by the intersection of identities, overlapping to create more complex barriers to support.
Flaws in service design
In addition to gaps in the services provided to those in financial hardship, research also highlighted shortcomings in the approach to designing services:
- Collaboration: there is a need for increased collaboration both between organisations, and between an organisation and its service users. Organisations need to coordinate between services so that individuals receive support from the most relevant service, and gets all of the support they need for a particular issue. In relation to intersectionality, providers should seek to create a more holistically minded sector. Success should be understood by looking at overall rates of financial hardship rather than the success of any one programme. Organisations need to increasingly incorporate user involvement as they design new and refine existing services, with adequate space for those with lived experience to build their confidence in inputting into these processes.
- Funding: across the financial hardship sector, there is a lack of funding for proven initiatives that are working, due to a focus on funding new projects.
- Communication: service providers need to better consider their communication strategies in order to counter the entrenched lack of awareness about what services are available to people, and what support they are entitled to.
- Data: the sector need to better use and grow data on key areas in order to more effectively make decisions. Shortcomings in data includes: statistics on income based poverty, data on the impact of Covid-19 on different demographic groups; and evidence on the impact of user engagement on the outcomes of key programmes. Data also needs to be sufficiently detailed, for example to avoid a lack of support where pockets of deprivation are masked by overall affluence.
What funding opportunities exist?
As well as taking action to reduce barriers to accessing existing support, plug gaps in existing services, and support organisations to overcome challenges in programme design (as set out above); opportunities for funders looking to support work alleviating financial hardship include:
- Growing and sustaining proven initiatives
- Awarding funds to grassroots organisations working in hyper local communities
- Running test and learn programmes trying out different approaches and asking for feedback
- Offering a hardship scheme that provides direct cash payments to individuals
- Investing in early years programmes that empower parents to return to work
- Making unrestricted grants to charities that work in the financial hardship space
- Funding data collection and analysis in areas of limited understanding
- Investing in social prescribing / training programmes around financial wellbeing
- Incentivising collaborations between service providers to make provision more holistic and streamline
What policy recommendations exist?
Funders can also look to support advocacy work that aims to bring about the following policy recommendations that are seen as promising by the charity sector:
- Reform to benefits:
- Early uplift of benefits (bringing it forwards from April 2023)
- Ending the five-week wait for Universal Credit, removing the benefit cap, uplifting benefits in line with inflation, increasing child benefit and local housing allowance.
- Ending the No Recourse to Public Funds condition, most urgently for families. While NRPF is still in place, allowing children to access free school meals and funded childcare.
- Legal reform:
- Putting in place statutory rights for employees affected by domestic abuse or other causes of financial hardship (taking on caring duties, bereavement) to vary their working arrangements in order to cope with its impacts.need to
- Reinstating and increasing investment in legal aid
- Simplifying processes for change in immigration status in cases of destitution, and for challenging decisions
- Workforce reform:
- Making minimum wage equivalent to the Real Living Wage
- Increasing investment in skills and retraining
- Housing reform:
- Extending rent control and eviction restrictions, and establishing a legal precedent for tenants having the first option to purchase.
- Expanding help to rent schemes.
- Developing housing finance products that are accessible for those in precarious employment or who are self employed.
- Funding reform:
- Implementing long term funding plans for local authorities to allow for strategic local planning
- Scoping the feasibility of a UK No Interest Loans Scheme targeted to a small group of people
- Setting up an emergency fund for domestic abuse survivors to cover immediate needs, linked to ongoing support from specialist services
In the short term, in order to help ease the cost-of-living crisis, policy recommendations include:
- Removing VAT from energy bills
- Removing green levies from energy bills
- Restoring work allowances to pre-2015 level
- Expanding the free school meals scheme
- Increasing the value of healthy start vouchers to £4.25 a week and expanding them to all pregnant women on Universal Credit or equivalent
Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to read this document, summarizing our current understanding of financial hardship in the UK. This is a summary of a wider set of research, interviews and analysis, but we’d be interested to hear your views on anything that resonates – or doesn’t – with you in this document. Please email Naomi Chapman with any thoughts and if you are interested in the Open Philanthropy programme more generally contact us.
How we mapped the financial hardship landscape
When I joined NPC and the Open Philanthropy team in May 2022, work to map the financial hardship landscape was already underway. Desk based research had started, and a few interviews with key players in this field had been held.
Since May, we have:
- Undertaken a gap analysis to ensure that desk-based research covered key areas of the sector and the nuances of each
- Finalised our desk-based research, collating notes from 50 pieces of evidence
- Conducted more interviews, moving from two that had been delivered in Spring 2022 to a current tally of 10
- Collated and analysed data from all of these sources to create iterative versions of our report
- You can see an overview of the organisations we have spoken to or been informed by here.
Can’t see your organisation or perspective on the list?
We currently have a live survey call for evidence, which should take you no more than five minutes to complete, and will further feed into our understanding of financial hardship. Complete it now!
References
[1] Poverty in the UK: Statistics. House of Commons Library. 13 April 2022.
[2] Measuring Poverty 2020. Social Metrics Commission. 1st July 2020.
[3] Measuring Poverty 2020. Social Metrics Commission. 1st July 2020.
[4] UK Poverty 2022. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 18th January 2022.
[5] Turn2Us data on NPC Databank. NPC. Accessed 28 July 2022.
[6] Child poverty facts and figures. Child Poverty Action Group. Accessed 28th July 2022.
[7] Child poverty facts and figures. Child Poverty Action Group. Accessed 28th July 2022.
[8] Running on Empty. Fareshare. Accessed 28th July 2022.
[9] Poverty in the UK: Statistics. House of Commons Library. 13th April 2022.
[10] The Impact of Financial Hardship on Single Parents: An Exploration of the Journey From Social Distress to Seeking Help. Journal of Family and Economic Issues. 17th October 2017.
[11] Gender, Personal Finances and Covid-19. Financial Conduct Authority. 24th May 2021.
[12] Households Below Average Income, Statistics on the number and percentage of people living in low income households for financial years 1994/95 to 2018/19, Table 4.3tr. Department for Work and Pensions, 2020
[13] Funding halved on services for vulnerable children in England. BBC News. 15th July 2021.
[14] Why we need civil society to stand up and lead. Commission on Civil Society. Accessed 28th July 2022.
[15] Homeless Monitor England. Crisis. 22nd February 2022.
[16] Homeless Monitor England. Crisis. 22nd February 2022.
[17] Barely breaking even: the experiences and impact of in-work homelessness across Britain. Crisis. 16th December 2021.
[18] The needs of adult care leavers. The Care Leavers’ Association. Accessed 28th July 2022.
[19] Leaving care: addressing poverty and wellbeing. Barnardos. Accessed 28th July 2022.
[20] Child poverty rises linked to 10,000 more children going into care over five years, finds research. Community Care. 10th January 2022.
[21] Women and Poverty. National Education Union. 17th January 2019.
[22] Valuing women’s unpaid work. Young Women’s Trust. 4th March 2020.
[23] Women and Poverty. National Education Union. 17th January 2019.
[24] Interview with NPC. 12th July 2022.
[25] The financial impact of Covid-19 on disabled people and carers. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 3rd December 2020.
[26] Disability and Poverty. New Policy Institute. 11th August 2016.
[27] Disability Price Tag. Scope. February 2019.
[28] Disability Price Tag. Scope. February 2019
[29] Disability Price Tag. Scope. February 2019
[30] The impact of Covid-19 on disabled women from Sisters of Frida. Sisters of Frida. April 2020.
[31] Disability and Poverty. New Policy Institute. 11th August 2016.
[32] Lessons learned: where women stand at the start of 2021. Women’s Budget Group. 26th January 2021.
[33] Destitution in the UK: how the No Recourse to Public Funds immigration condition affects poverty. COMPAS Oxford. 23rd March 2022.
[34] Children In Poverty: No Recourse to Public Funds. UK Parliament. 14th April 2022
[35] No Recourse To Public Funds is a public health risk and causes destitution. Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. March 2021.
[36] Children In Poverty: No Recourse to Public Funds. UK Parliament. 14th April 2022.
[37] No Recourse to Public Funds Network website. Accessed 29th July 2022.
[38] The Treatment of Asylum Seekers. Joint Committee on Human Rights. 30th March 2007.
[39] No Recourse To Public Funds is a public health risk and causes destitution. Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. March 2021.
[40] Poverty rates among ethnic groups in Great Britain. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 30th April 2007.
[41] Poverty rates among ethnic groups in Great Britain. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 30th April 2007.
[42] Women and Poverty during the Pandemic. Women’s Resource Centre. 20th July 2020.
[43] Interview with NPC. 12th July 2022.
[44] Financial Hardship in Black Households. United for Alice. June 2020.
[45] Poverty rates among ethnic groups in Great Britain. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 30th April 2007.
[46] Gender, Personal Finances and Covid-19. Financial Conduct Authority. 24th May 2021.
[47] Why we need civil society to stand up and lead. Commission on Civil Society. Accessed 28th July 2022.
[48] The financial impact of Covid-19 on disabled people and carers. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 3rd December 2020.
[49] The financial impact of Covid-19 on disabled people and carers. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 3rd December 2020.
[50] An Avoidable Crisis: The disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. Lawrence Review. Accessed 29th July 2022.
[51] We cannot allow the pandemic to set gender parity back decades. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 8th March 2021.
[52] We cannot allow the pandemic to set gender parity back decades. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 8th March 2021.
[53] No Recourse To Public Funds is a public health risk and causes destitution. Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. March 2021.
[54] No Recourse To Public Funds is a public health risk and causes destitution. Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. March 2021.
[55] UK cost of living crisis: what’s happening, why, and what might help. ZD Net. 24 May 2022.
[56] Interview with NPC. 30th March 2022.
[57] Surviving but not living. Resident Voice Index. June 2022.
i) Positionality Statements
Jane Dodson is informed by her experience growing up in Wales, living in social housing with a single parent from the age of seven, and attended a comprehensive. She secured a place at Staffordshire Polytechnic (now University) and received a state grant to attend, graduating with BA (Hons) Modern Studies (specialising in International Relations). Whilst working in the global humanitarian sector she developed participatory research skills and evaluation techniques, later working mainly in sustainable community development. She later gained an MSc in Policy Analysis & Evaluation from UCL. She is white, married, has no physical disabilities and lives in England.
Naomi Chapman grew up in rural South Devon, attending a local state comprehensive. She attended the University of Oxford, graduating with a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. After graduation, she worked in the cultural sector and gained a PGCert in Arts Fundraising & Leadership from the University of Leeds, before applying her expertise in fundraising, grant making and organisational development to the wider charity sector at NPC.
Lily Meisner grew up in London, she attended the University of Exeter, graduating with a BA in Liberal Arts majoring in English Literature, and minoring in Sociology, Politics, Philosophy and Arab and Islamic Studies. After graduation she gained experience in the social sector as a volunteer at St Mungo’s throughout the COVID-19 lockdowns, before starting her role as a Researcher at NPC.
ii) How is financial hardship defined?
There are two central definitions of poverty, which in turn indicates financial hardship:
- Income poverty, which is defined in relation to median income in the UK (and as such is a relative measure)
- Minimum Income Standard, which is defined by an individual’s ability to achieve a minimum acceptable standard of living
