Benefits, food banks, and denial

A blazing row erupted earlier this week with the publication of a charity research report on food banks – the latest in a series of blazing rows on food bank use in the UK.  At stake was the claim that food bank use is related to issues with the benefits system, a claim that has been made repeatedly but which has been steadfastly rejected by the Government.  The charity Sense about Science got in touch with me to ask about the charity report, and after sending them a briefing that underpinned their own blog post, I decided to write a fuller explanation here.

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The latest from British Social Attitudes

Today sees the release of the annual British Social Attitudes series, and – for the first time – I have a chapter in it.  I make two arguments.  Firstly- and familiar to readers of this blog – I argue that attitudes to benefits are not as negative as they seem (as I blog about at The Conversation). Secondly, I look at whether people feel they are financially struggling (and whether other people are in poverty), how this has changed over time, and it’s link to benefit attitudes.  You can find the full chapter here.

However, the newest and most newsworthy findings come from a different chapter

The Inequalities Blog is changing

Those of you who check the blog will have noticed that the gap between posts has been steadily increasing for a while, and recently we haven’t posted much at all.  This is the perhaps inevitable result of the blog contributors variously changing job and being overwhelmed by a myriad of other (albeit exciting) projects.

However, all is not lost!  Instead, the blog is changing.

Rather than having a regular posting schedule, we – me (Ben), Rob and Brendan – will put things up on a more occasional basis, either when we have new research of our own out, or when we have something we really want to say about someone else’s research.  (So for example, Ben will write something to accompany his chapter in British Social Attitudes next week).

So please do keep in touch with the blog – either by following is on Twitter, liking our Facebook page, on RSS, or joining our mailing list (see the right-hand side of this page).

We’re also proud of the body of posts on the blog so far – since the first posts in September 2010, we’ve written over 350 posts between us (Ben and Brendan both managing over 100 each and Rob writing more than 30, as well as nearly 25 from Bill, and with 28 other contributors writing at least one post).  There’s over 400 people on the mailing list, over 200 following via Facebook, and over 2000 followers on Twitter.  And even just looking over the highlights from the first three months in 2010, there’s a huge amount on the blog that we ourselves find useful to come back to.

So huge thanks to all the contributors so far, thanks also to those of you that read the blog and share it with others, and we’re looking forward to continuing the blog (albeit in a less-intensive phase) going forward 🙂

Ben, Rob and Brendan, June 2014

Perceived social mobility: do we think that money buys success?

This post first appeared on the LSE British Politics & Policy blog.

The importance of social mobility has long been accepted across the political spectrum – even before Thomas Piketty’s pessimistic account reached the bestseller lists.  Yet somehow, in a world where we are increasingly opinion-polled-to-death, relatively little has been written about what British people think about social mobility.   To accompany a new TUC pamphlet on social mobility by Declan Gaffney and myself that was released this week (see here), this blog post provides an insight into the perceptions that coexist with the realities.

Do we think Britain is a socially mobile country?

Exploring TV’s new obsession with ‘Poverty Porn’

One of our regular readers, Jayne Linney, runs a fascinating blog over at http://jaynelinney.wordpress.com/. In one of her recent posts she examines the renewed surge of interest in patronising documentaries about poor communities. Definitely worth a read:

http://jaynelinney.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/poverty-journalism-and-the-media-patronisation-of-the-poor/

 

Why isn’t the child poverty consultation more child friendly?

Children’s focus group room. (Copyright Sarah Brooks-Wilson, 2014)

In this guest post Sarah Brooks-Wilson examines whether the UK government’s latest consultation on child poverty is likely to be accessible to those most affected.

What a huge relief that as adults, we no longer need to speak on behalf of children.  Last week the UK Government launched a child poverty e-consultation which invited the views of children as well the usual selection of interested parties.  As the importance of children’s participation was also very recently restated, consideration of the way they access, understand and respond to strategic discussions remains of key importance.  Usefully, the Government’s consultation principles concur, favouring broad, inclusive processes where the ‘hard to reach’ become part of a robust policy solution.  Yet despite these mandatory commitments, government consultations often remain inaccessible to those who may be impacted. 

An instinct for fairness?

I’m just now getting around to reading Joseph Stiglitz’s book from last year The Price of Inequality. There’s lots of interesting stuff in there, some of which I may end up talking about here on the blog. But as I was reading the other day, there was one particular section that struck me. He’s talking about some of the things that classical economic theory (with its ruthless devotion to efficiency) has trouble with, and the example he brings up is human beings’ strange preoccupation with fairness.

 According to classical economics, in any transaction people should only be interested in maximising their personal gain (properly understood).

Practical privilege

We don’t usually just post links to other articles here, but I was really impressed by this honest description of privilege from the side of the privileged. He really nails how his path into his career was so much easier and smoother because he ‘looked the part’:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/programmer_privilege_as_an_asian_male_computer_science_major_everyone_gave.html

The Habits of Highly Annoying Get-Rich Gurus

Sorry for the extended holiday hiatus everyone. Both Brendan and I have been really busy and have struggled to find time for blogging. But now we’re back, so why not let us start the year with something horribly depressing and infuriating – Happy 2014 everyone!

This is something I saw at the end of last year, and have been meaning to write about since. It’s a list of comparisons of the habits of the rich and poor compiled by a US money guru called Dave Ramsey, culled from a book by fellow money advice guy, Tom Corley. I wouldn’t normally write about the witterings of random “Biblically inspired” American financial advisers, but this list got a lot of  coverage last year in the States. Admittedly, a lot of the coverage was negative; but with 470,000 Facebook likes, it obviously struck a chord somewhere.

Conference Announcement: Complex Systems, Health Disparities & Population Health: Building Bridges

Conference on Complex Systems, Health Disparities & Population Health: Building Bridges

February 24-25, 2014
Natcher Conference Center
NIH Campus, Bethesda, MD

Presented by the University of Michigan Network on Inequality, Complexity and Health

Improving population health and eliminating health disparities is a critical task, yet our efforts are stymied by the complexity of the task, involving as it does causes of poor health that range from public policy to the nature of our neighborhoods to how we behave to biology.  On February 24-25, 2014, at the National Institutes of Health Natcher Conference Center in Bethesda, Maryland, join scholars and practitioners from the United States and abroad to learn about and see examples of how complex systems science can help guide our research and policy efforts to eliminate health disparities and improve the health of our population.

For additional information: http://tinyurl.com/complexitydisparitiespophealth