Tackling poverty and inequality

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Tackling poverty and inequality

• Julia Unwin, Chief Executive
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree
  Housing Trust

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Our purpose

• Search
• Demonstrate
• Influence

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Our work programmes and aims

• Poverty to examine the root causes of poverty,
  inequality and disadvantage, and identify
  solutions
• Place to contribute to the creation and
  development of strong, sustainable and inclusive
  communities
• Empowerment to identify ways of enabling people
  and communities to have control of their own
  lives

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JRF work on poverty High level overview

• Child poverty
• Minimum Income Standards (MIS)
• Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion (MOPSE)
• Dynamics of Poverty and Place

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JRF work on poverty Policy areas

• Poverty and Education
• Poverty and Ethnicity
• Financial inclusion and debt
• Cycles of poverty

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Scotland income deciles
Source Scottish Government. A National
Statistics Publication for Scotland. Poverty
income inequality in Scotland 2007/08.
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Poverty progress in Scotland

• Child poverty progress has stalled but has
  decreased overall
• Pensioner poverty rate in Scotland has reduced
  from 31 to 16
• The poverty rate of working-age adults has also
  fallen to 19 but is now only the same as in
  1996/7

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compared with other UK nations
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What are the levers on changing poverty?

• Tax
• Benefits
• Employment
• Access to childcare
• Public sector pay and conditions

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The impact of the recession