Information Bulletin

Summary of News and Publications from the Week ending 15 November 2013

JRF Activity
Report: Tackling In-Work Poverty by Supporting Dual-Earning Families. How can working families be helped out of poverty? A third of the 1.3 million families with children living in poverty are single breadwinner couple families. Report: Poverty, Economic Status and Skills: what are the links? Are households with a lack of skills are greater risk of poverty? Traditional Breadwinner Couples the Largest Group in Poverty in Low-Pay Britain Blog from Katie Schmuecker. More Multicultural Community Events Would Help Reduce UKs Loneliness Epidemic Blog from Nageena Khan. A Four-Point plan to Fix the UK Housing Market Blog from Kathleen Kelly.

Poverty
In the third quarter of 2013, the UK unemployment rate fell by 0.2% to 7.6%, compared to both the previous quarter and the same time last year, as the number of unemployed people fell by 48,000 to 2.47 million. The unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds also fell, dipping by 0.4% to 21%. The unemployment rate remained stable in Scotland at 7.2% and fell 0.2% to 7.3% in Northern Ireland, where the claimant count rate of 6.7% was the highest of the 12 UK regions. The highest unemployment rate in the home countries is in Wales, recording a fall of 0.3% to 7.8% in the third quarter. The TUCs Job Quality Index shows that while the employment rate is back to its 2009 level, job quality has remained close to a 20-year low. The Index tracks pay rises against the rising cost of living and the number of people who cant find enough hours in their current job. Although youth unemployment has increased across Europe since the 20082009 financial crisis, it has been rising relative to unemployment rates in older adults for much longer, which suggests that a return to economic growth will not be enough to address the problem. States of uncertainty: Youth unemployment in Europe, a new report from Institute for Public Policy Research, explores the varying causes of youth unemployment in different countries and looks at improvements which could be made. The National Audit Offices new report on utility infrastructure, predicts that consumers will see another 17 years of above inflation increases to their energy and water bills, to pay for much needed infrastructure investment. Figures in the report said that in 2011, the average household spent 8% of their expenditure on energy and water bills, rising sharply to 15% for households on the lowest incomes.

Based on a survey sample of 1,000 people, Legal & General estimate that 6.8 million households in the UK are in fuel poverty in 2013, 2.4 million more than in 2012 and significantly more than the Governments estimate of 3.2 million. The MoneyMood survey was conducted using telephone interviews. Englands eight main cities have been allocated a share of funding, after submitting bids with innovative proposals to tackle the problem of youth unemployment in their area. The funding will be used to help young unemployed people in ways that suit the needs of local employers including addressing skills gaps, improving training, offering more support and working with employers to offer more jobs and apprenticeships. The DWP has launched an independent review of Jobseeker's Allowance sanctions, which will look are the clarity of the information given to JSA claimants on sanctions and what can be done to make the process clearer. Responses are invited from JSA claimants who have experienced sanctions, people working with claimants, Jobcentre Plus advisers and decision makers and employment programme providers. The closing date for responses is 10 January 2014. 72% young people with chronic health conditions felt at risk of unemployment during the recession, while 97% attend work when ill due to the fear of losing their job, according to a report by The Work Foundation on behalf of the Fit for Work UK partnership. Life and employment opportunities of young people with chronic conditions. A survey of almost 4,000 of its members by union Unite found 66% of respondents reported a fall in disposable income in the last six months. The survey found that women felt an average fall in disposable income of 190 month, almost double the average fall for men of 95. Credit information providers Experian and Big Issue Invest are calling for social housing rental records to be added to tenants credit history so they can secure mainstream lender loans. Many tenants are currently excluded from affordable credit through a lack of credit history, causing them to turn to payday lenders. Experian and Big Issue Invest are working together on Rental Exchange, which allows tenants to add their rental payments to their credit history. Research by the Sutton Trust has revealed that children of professionals in England are 3.2 times more likely to go to a top (Russell Group) university than working class children, as opposed to going to a less prestigious university, but 27% of this difference is not down to exam grades and remains unexplained. This suggests that there are working class children who, even though they have the grades to attend, choose to enter a less prestigious institution instead. Although 38% of people think the economic recovery is underway, only 11% say they feel a part of it, according to a survey of 4,000 people commissioned by KPMG and Shelter. In order to feel the recovery was affecting them, 49% said they would need to see a wage rise, 36% a fall in unemployment and 24% a fall in inflation.

Place
The DWP has published the first figures on the bedroom tax. 522,000 housing benefit claimants were subject to the bedroom tax in August and had their housing benefit reduced by an average of 14.48 a week. 429,000 people had their housing benefit reduced for having one bedroom too many, an average cut of 12.66 a week, while 92,000 were categorised as having two excess bedrooms, and lost an average of 23.43 a week.

In a survey of 1,000 people for BBC Panorama, 31% said they spent more than a third of their disposable income each month on paying their rent or mortgage. The CAB in Scotland has seen a 29% increase in clients seeking housing benefit advice and a 41% increase in people reporting rent arrears, since the implementation of the bedroom tax in April. 80% of the 82,000 households affected in Scotland have a disabled occupant. The number of repossessions in the UK in the third quarter fell to 7,200, down from 8,200 in the third quarter of last year and the lowest since the Council of Mortgage Lenders began reporting quarterly figures in 2008. The total number of mortgages with payments in arrears fell by 1.4% compared to the same quarter in 2012. PwC predicts that the average UK house price could reach 300,000 by 2020, if prices rise by an average of around 4% per year. PwC now expect house prices in the UK in 2013 to grow by 3.5% compared to 2012. Over 2,000 people have put in offers on a home as a result of the Help to Buy scheme, three quarters of whom are first time buyers, according to figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government. Commentators say the rise in average house prices across the country over the last month is partly attributable to the Help to Buy scheme.

An Ageing Society
Changes to the GP contract announced by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, which will take effect in April 2014, include assigning every person aged 75 and over a named GP, in an attempt to provide more co-ordinated care and relieve pressure on A&E departments. GPs will also oversee personalised care plans and will be required to offer patients same-day telephone consultations, coordinate care for elderly patients discharged from A&E and regularly review emergency admissions from care homes. The Department of Health has released a Mandate for the NHS, which sets out the ambitions for the service for the next two years and says what patients can expect from GPs, hospitals and wider services. Key objectives include improving standards of care and treatment, especially for the elderly and vulnerable and better diagnosis, treatment and care for people with dementia. Go to the full mandate. The Northern Ireland Executive has published a 2013 update of its Profile of Older People in Northern Ireland report. From 2002 to 2012 the number of people aged 65 and over increased by 20.3% and is forecast to increase by another 63.5% in the next 20 years. After housing costs were deducted, pensioners were considerably less likely than working age adults and the population as a whole to be in relative low income, although households headed by older people were much more likely to be living in fuel poverty than other households in 2011. The Housing Minister, Kris Hopkins, has announced the opening of 15 new FirstStop services around the UK, including one in York, which brings together local partners to help older people to stay living in their own homes for longer. The service can provide support with adaptations and advice on estimates, a reasonably priced handypersons scheme for small home repairs, financial advice with help to get good utility deals and make homes energy efficient, help with housework and shopping and a befriending service.

A new website comparing adult local authority funded social care services has been launched by the Department of Health, which allows the public to compare their local authority against others in terms of how carers and people receiving care rate factors such as their quality of life and satisfaction with services. The data is from the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF). New research findings from the US found that regular exercise for 12 weeks in a group of people aged 57 to 75 improved scores on memory tests and increased blood flow to the hippocampus, the area of the brain which is affected by Alzheimers disease. A report from the National Audit of Intermediate Care shows that only half of intermediate home-based care services provide dementia training for all their staff.

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.