This paper considers how low income indicators can be related to the Minimum Income Standard. It starts by looking at evidence that having a low income is associated with negative outcomes, and considers below what thresholds relative to MIS households face increased risks. It finds that while the evidence points to no single threshold, MIS can be used to create two useful types of indicator. One is to count the number of people in households a certain amount below MIS at which the association between lower income and greater risk of deprivation appears to plateau. The other is an indicator of the "depth" of low income, in terms of the proportion of people below MIS times the percentage of MIS that they fall short. The paper describes a method of estimating these indicators for all households, and presents initial results.
Funding
Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough University
History
School
Social Sciences
Department
Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies
Research Unit
Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP)
Citation
HIRSCH, D., PADLEY, M. and VALADEZ, L., 2016. A poverty indicator based on a minimum income standard. Loughborough: Centre for Research in Social Policy
Loughborough University, 74pp.
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