Poverty and Destitution in the UK - New Research from the JRF

This Joseph Rowntree Foundation clip looks at how far Universal Credit stretches for low income families, noting that for many of them, it doesn't even cover the cost of essential items. And that is why the Foundation and the Trussell Trust are campaigning for it to cover essentials.

Larry Elliott looks here at a Harvard Kennedy School of Government paper, co-authored by Ed Balls no less, that highlights the difficulties associated with levelling up. I might have to track down the paper myself later - however, in summary, it notes that such a task is always difficult, and that it's made harder by a number of things, not least cross-party agreement about how to best undertake it.

I would also add that in its current form, it would benefit from being supported by genuine political will, rather than just rhetoric, which in my view it has almost always been since it was first mooted.

In a joint study with Heriot-Watt University, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that 3.8 million people - a million of them children - experienced destitution last year defined as being unable to meet some of the most basic needs - staying dry, clean, warm and fed.