Our publications

Below are some of our recent publications, to see more please select a specific year.

Older publications

Households living below a Minimum Income Standard: 2008–2023 This report is the 12th in a series monitoring the number of people living beneath the Minimum Income Standard in the UK. It focuses on 3 groups – children, working-age adults and pensioners – and how they have fared between 2008 and 2023. Robinson, E., Stone, J. and Padley, M. (2025) Households below the Minimum Income Standard: 2008-2023. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

“I Would Not Change [My] Sibling for the World, Maybe the World Can Change for My Sibling”: The Experiences of Adult Siblings of People With Developmental Disabilities The sibling relationship is complex, unique and important. When one sibling has a developmental disability, siblings can be important sources of care, support, advocacy and friendship for one another. We drew on online survey data from 456 UK adult siblings of people with DD. Siblings provided written responses to a prompt about their sibling experiences (> 80,000 words). These data were analysed using qualitative content analysis and organised using the Siblings Embedded Systems Framework (SESF). The SESF helps us to consider how complex interacting mechanisms and factors surrounding siblings, families and wider systems at a local, national and international level, can influence siblings' outcomes, experiences and relationships. Overall, siblings shared a range of experiences related to their: mental health and wellbeing; personal characteristics; sibling relationships; intra-familial experiences; caring experiences; experiences accessing support services; community experiences; and views on the discrimination and ableism that their disabled siblings experienced. Siblings reflected on the interconnected and dynamic nature of their experiences. We found the SESF to be a useful way of presenting an account of the data overall, as well as to explore the impact of societal factors on siblings' experiences. Siblings' structural, political and social contexts impacted their personal lives. Moran‐Morbey E, Blackwell C, Ryan T & Hayden NK (2024) “I Would Not Change [My] Sibling for the World, Maybe the World Can Change for My Sibling”: The Experiences of Adult Siblings of People With Developmental Disabilities. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 34(6).

A life in dignity for all? UK social security support, income adequacy and minimum living standards under austerity, 2008–2023 Since 2008, the UK has seen substantial political, economic and social change. Following the global financial crash, there was a shift in the role of the state in providing a ‘social minimum’ – or a properly constituted safety net – for all. Austerity and cuts in public spending contributed to increasing conditionality within social security, and a programme of restrictive welfare reforms undermined support for those on low or no income, delivered in part through the UK welfare state. This article uses the lens of decent minimum living standards to examine the impact of austerity on social security support, income adequacy and minimum living standards in the UK from 2008 to 2023. Minimum Income Standard (MIS) research in the UK provides the basis for this analysis. MIS sets out what the public agree is needed for a minimum socially acceptable standard of living, that meets essential needs and enables social participation. MIS provides an annually updated benchmark, rooted in public consensus, against which the adequacy of benefits and wages can be assessed and tracked over time. The article provides an overview of MIS, before setting out how illustrative households have fared over this period. We chart the impact of austerity on the adequacy of social security and minimum wages, relative to MIS. We end by reflecting on the question of what sort of social security system the UK needs to ensure that all can live in dignity at all stages of life. Padley, M. and Davis, A. (2025) A life in dignity for all? UK social security support, income adequacy and minimum living standards under austerity, 2008–2023. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, Bristol University Press. 10.1332/17598273Y2024D000000036

Apprenticeships, Child Benefit and Universal Credit: exploring the impact of eligibility criteria on living standards and income adequacy This report, undertaken for Youth Futures Foundation, looks at the impact of a young person starting an apprenticeship on household incomes, and in particular the adequacy of income relative to the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). It uses two illustrative case study households (a couple with two children, one primary age and one secondary school age, and a lone parent with two children, one primary age and one secondary school age) to look at the impact of the loss of Child Benefit and the Universal Credit child element on a households’ ability to reach MIS, when a young person in the household starts an apprenticeship. Padley, M. (2024) Apprenticeships, Child Benefit and Universal Credit: exploring the impact of eligibility criteria on living standards and income adequacy. London: Youth Futures Foundation.

Fuel poverty at the end of life in 2023 This research report, produced for end-of-life charity Marie Curie, estimates the number of people dying in fuel poverty in the UK. It is estimated that 128,000 people died in fuel poverty in 2023. The research also identifies subgroups of the population that are especially vulnerable to being in fuel poverty at the end of life, examines changes to energy spending in the last year of life and models the impact of a social tariff. Robinson, E. and Stone, J. (2024) Fuel Poverty at the end of life in 2023. London: Marie Curie