Information Bulletin

Summary of News and Publications from the Week ending 24 January 2014

JRF Activity
Publication Households Below Average Income Standard: 2008/9 to 2011/12. The proportion of people living in households below the minimum income standard has increased by a fifth between 2008/9 and 2011/12, with the biggest rise being among single working age people, especially those aged under 35. Also Press Release. 20 Ways we can Adapt to be more Dementia-Friendly Blog from Philly Hare Publication - Dementia Friendly Yorkshire: First steps on the journey.

Poverty
2.32 million people were unemployed in the three months to November 2013, giving an unemployment rate of 7.1%. In September-November the number of 16-24 year olds who are unemployed fell to 920,000, bringing the unemployment rate for the age group down to 20% from 20.1% last quarter and 20.5% last year. The Government should delay expanding free nursery provision to more children until more early years workers can complete additional qualifications to provide the necessary quality of care required, according to a new report for the Sutton Trust by Oxford University. In the first year where councils were required to design their own council tax support schemes, 80% reduced entitlements to working age families. Around 2.5 million households saw their support entitlements fall, by an average of 160 per year and 70% of the 2 million working-age households in England that could previously have had their council tax fully refunded, had to pay towards it in 201314. Report from IFS Council Tax Support Schemes in England: What Did Local Authorities Choose, and with What Effects?. A report from CIPD which seeks to explore the attitudes to Universal Credit of jobseekers, employers and policymakers, sets out recommendations for a smooth transition. These include providing financial education to claimants who need it, improving co-ordination between Jobcentre plus and other support providers and the gradual introduction of in work conditionality. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves has proposed a basic skills assessment for job seekers with additional training for those who dont make the grade and a higher rate of Jobseekers Allowance for workers who have paid five or more years of national insurance contributions. Video of Rachel Reeves explaining the proposals to an event at the Institute for Public Policy Research. Public sector workers are an average of 23 per month worse off in real terms compared to December 2012 and 127 when looking at December 2009, according to the latest monthly index from salary processing company VocaLink.

Trussell Trust food banks are putting together kettle boxes which include foods that can be prepared with just hot water, and cold boxes of food which requires no cooking, for people who have too little credit on their energy meter or who have had their gas supply cut off. Although the attainment gap between the least and most advantaged has narrowed since the 1960s, the chances of a disadvantaged child becoming a high achiever have stayed low for 50 years, according to a new report from the Institute of Education. The Long View on Radio 4 Tuesday looked at The Working Poor.

Place
The overall total cost of the bedroom tax for Scottish housing associations and cooperatives has been estimated at 79.1 million over three years, according to a new report from the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations. Real Cost of the Bedroom Tax for Scottish Housing Associations and Co-operatives. Take-up of the Green Deal has continued at a slower pace that initially predicted by Ministers. To the end of December, 1,612 households had Green Deal plans in progress and 626 of these have completed the installation of energy efficiency measures. Since the scheme launched last January, almost 130,000 homes have been assessed. A quarter of a million more homes are expected to face significant flooding by 2035 according to an independent report from the Committee on Climate Change. It argues that planned Government spending on flooding is not rising in line with projected changes to the UK climate and local contributions to flood defences will need to rise and keep rising to make up the shortfall. Garden cities are in the news this week: Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary has said the Department for Communities and Local Government favours garden settlements over garden cities, but this week also suggested that two garden cities could be built in the SouthEast of but would not be forced on unwilling communities. Meanwhile, Legal & General, Britain's biggest pension fund manager, wants to build five new towns across Britain over the next decade, costing 5bn. Boris Johnson writes in the Telegraph that the UK does not need any new 'garden' cities but that London's brownfield sites can solve the housing crisis. 26% of people aged between 20 and 34 were living with their parents in 2013, 25% more than in 1996. A survey by SpareRom.com of 1,500 landlords found that only 18% currently have tenants who are claiming housing benefit and over half of those are planning to stop taking any more tenants who receive benefits, after the roll-out of Universal Credit. Overall, 57% of landlords already say they now refuse to accept housing benefit tenants. A report from the Williams Commission has set out proposals to reduce the number of local authorities in Wales from 22 to between 10 and 12, by merging councils. Merging councils could cost 100 million but save 60-80 million a year critics estimate the cost of merging councils to be closer to 200m. New migrant jobseekers from the European Economic Area will not be able to claim housing benefit from April 2014.

To help mitigate the high interest rates on Green Deal loans, a report from UK Green Building Council recommends introducing more flexible payments such as the option to repay loans more quickly to reduce the overall amount paid, or to allow payments to vary over time with inflation or the base rate. Alternative forms of finance could also be investigated, through social investors and community lending or by local authorities setting up funds using low cost capital. Homelessness in Scotland for July to September fell by 13% on the same period of 2012.

An Ageing Society
The Association of British Insurers and the Care and Support minister Norman Lamb have signed a joint agreement to making sure the environment exists to expand the number of financial products available to help pay for long term care and to help people get the information they need to make decisions on paying for care. Housing LIN has published a report on Adapting to the Challenges of an Ageing Population for Social Housing, based on research from Heriot-Watt University, recommending the use of local Accessible Housing Registers to ensure more efficient use of housing stock. A new report from the Policy Exchange recommends ending the opt-out for pension autoenrolment and an automatic escalation in the auto-enrolment system where part of any pay increase has to be allocated to a pension contribution. Current figures suggest that on average, a person on an average salary (27,000) will need to save over six times more than they currently do to generate the governments recommended retirement income of 16,200. Former minister Paul Burstow, writing in the Telegraph, is calling on ministers to ensure that older people living in care homes are given protection under the Human Rights Act. An estimated one in seven over 65s across the UK, and one in five in London, are considering renting out a spare room, according to a survey from More Than insurance, which suggests that almost half of retirees are looking for opportunities for additional income to top up their pensions. New research has found that third sector organisations providing preventative services for older people have positive relationships with commissioners, however, there are concerns in the sector that overall funding for the services may be significantly cut. A survey for the Royal Voluntary Service shows that 33% of older people miss sitting down for a meal with family and 13% say they find Sunday the loneliest day. This Information Bulletin is produced on a weekly basis as an update for staff at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) for the purposes of their work it is not intended to be comprehensive but represents a selection of news and reports appearing in the last week. The items contained in this Bulletin are for information only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the JRF and JRHT.