The annual Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion report provides the definitive picture of poverty in the UK. It finds that while overall poverty levels have remained steady, there have been significant increases in poverty among certain groups like working families, young people, and those in private rental housing. Experts discuss strategies for reducing poverty, including improving access to affordable housing and increasing secure, well-paying jobs. Key challenges are transforming the labor and housing markets so work provides a real path out of poverty for more people.

1. Introduction to:
Monitoring poverty and social exclusion
Launched 23 November 2015

2. What is it?
Monitoring poverty and social exclusion
(MPSE) is Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s
annual report revealing the definitive
picture of poverty in the UK.
MPSE digital
MPSE printed version

3. Why is it important?
Monitoring poverty and social exclusion is a
regular, independent assessment of progress in
tackling poverty and other types of disadvantage
across the UK.
The report, written by the New Policy Institute,
uses official data from a range of sources to look
at trends and patterns, allowing us to get a
better understanding of the contemporary nature
of poverty and exclusion.

4. Sonia Sodha
Chief Leader Writer, The Observer
“MPSE has become more
critical than ever.”
“It’s never been more
important to have really
robust authoritative data sets
and analysis like MPSE...”

5. Julia Unwin
Chief Executive, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust
“Joseph Rowntree Foundation
has been funding the annual
report on poverty and social
exclusion done by NPI for 18
years. The reason we have
done it for so long is because
our purpose is to shine a
bright light on the very real
figures and what’s taking place
in the country today.”

6. What will have the biggest impact on
achieving an ‘all-out’ assault on poverty?
(panel debate)

7. Shiv Malik
Investigative Correspondent for The Guardian
and co-author of Jilted Generation: How Britain
Has Bankrupted Its Youth
“We now have to take a
different strategy to
reducing poverty in this
country... we now have to
re-focus our strategy on
building assets.”

8. Mark Littlewood
Director, Institute of Economic Affairs
“An interesting and challenging
report…”
“I am not sure there is a single
silver bullet but the most silvery
of bullets is definitely tackling
housing supply…”

9. Baroness Stroud of
Fulham
Co-founder and Chief Executive, Centre for
Social Justice
“I do think that people on both
sides of the political divide now
are beginning to ask
themselves the question: can
we not come together and
actually develop metrics that
genuinely measure the
people who we are most
concerned about – those who
are entrenched in poverty?”

10. Dr Peter Kenway
Director and Co-founder, New Policy Institute
“I think that the poverty debate
needs to re-centre (on what is
a very challenging issue) around
rights and responsibilities, of
people themselves, but also
landlords, employers, the state
and financial institutions. It’s a
completely different centering
to the debate but its great
attraction is that it does not just
apply to people on the official
statistics who count as being
poor.”

11. Tom MacInnes
Research Director, New Policy Institute,
Co-author of MPSE
Outlines his final thoughts on
the report and the key findings.

12. #MPSEUK15
Headline findings

13. #MPSE2015 #ukpoverty
Today, more
young people
aged 16-24 are
in poverty...
...than people
aged over 65
1.7 MILLION
1.4 MILLION
#MPSE2015 #ukpoverty
Young people are 4 times more likely to
be unemployed and 5 times as likely to be
on a zero-hours contract as older workers
Job Centre
Under 25Over 25
4 times as likely to be unemployed
Under 25Over 25
5 times as likely to be on a zero-hours contract

14. The number of homeless households
has risen by 13,000 in the last five years
#MPSE2015 #ukpoverty
2010
2015
40,000
53,000
37%
in 2015
64%
in 2015
Only around 1/3 of children on free
school meals achieve five good GCSEs
#MPSE2015 #ukpoverty

15. 2005
2015
650,000
1.3 million
The number of children in poverty
living in the private rented sector has
doubled in the last 10 years
#MPSE2015 #ukpoverty
84 per cent of working-age households
have at least one adult in work,
the highest percentage since 1996
#MPSE2015 #ukpoverty
having a job is
not necessarily
a way out of
poverty... ... over half of
all people in
poverty live in
a working family
However

16. Summary
The last few years have seen little change in the headline
numbers of people in poverty, as cuts in welfare for some
have been balanced by increasing employment for others.
Beneath the surface, however, there have been big changes.
Poverty has grown among working families, private
renters and the under-25s. The main challenges for the
coming years are in the labour and housing markets.
The increase in employment needs to translate to an increase
in well-paying, secure work – essentially, building on the good
news of the last couple of years. Fixing the housing market
is, if anything, more important. People cannot work their way
out of poverty if they do not have a secure, affordable home.

17. Read the full report
www.jrf.org.uk/mpse-2015
Call us for a printed version
0207 5202087