Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK

Hopefully the UK economy will turn a corner in 2014 and return to robust growth and good health, raising living standards for some of the poorest people in the UK. It would be very odd if you hadn't reflected on the plight of the poor in the UK over the last few years, and in the build up to Christmas.Much discussion of poverty in Economics is of a normative nature. What do we mean by poverty anyway? Isn't it all just a matter of opinion? Is poverty a lifestyle choice, picked up by people who have been given the wrong incentives by the welfare system? Perhaps it's the fault of immigrants, or greedy business, or dishonest politicians.....Some relatively impartial data would be very welcome in this very heated debate.

I'd like to recommend that you might turn to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion Report for 2013. Did you already know that most people classed as being in poverty actually have a job, for instance?

Falling real incomes amongst the lowest paid workers in society is a topic I encourage you to reflect on.