A Minimum Income Standard for London 2020

This latest research looking at what is needed for a decent living standard in London focused on households with children. Groups of parents in Inner and Outer London discussed and detailed what these households need in order to have a minimum socially acceptable standard of living in 2020. While life for many Londoners was very different in 2020 than in previous years as a result of COVID-19, this research asked groups of parents to think about and reach consensus about minimum needs in a pre-pandemic London. Further work to understand the impact of COVID-19 on minimum living standards will be undertaken in 2021.

This study also calculated the difference in a minimum household budget between the capital and elsewhere in the UK, and the implications of this difference for the adequacy of social security and wages. Finally, the findings of the research were used to look at the number of households falling short of meeting this minimum standard in the capital and how this has changed over time.