Poverty in Britain Today—The Evidence

Wedderburn, Dorothy

doi:10.1111/j.1467-954x.1962.tb01112.x

Cited by 45 publications

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“…Considering the income data to be unreliable, Townsend defined total 'household income' using household expenditure data, as Bowley had done previously (Allen and Bowley 1935). Wedderburn (1962) found 12 per cent of households had income below or close to the government's social security standard (itself widely thought to be based upon Rowntree's index of 'human needs'), while Abel- Smith and Townsend (1965) discovered that 14.2 per cent of the UK population were living in households below or close to the government social security standard in 1960, compared to 7.8 per cent in 1953. An addition of up to 40 per cent on the basic government standard helped to promote the notion of being on the margins of poverty and explains the title of the book, The Poor and the Poorest (Townsend 2004).…”

Section: The Era Of National Government Surveys and Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Historical Development of Family Budget Standards in Britain, from the 17th Century to the Present

Deeming¹

2010

Soc Policy Adm

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This article reviews the British tradition of research into household budget standards and describes a rich history of theoretical and methodological innovation in the social sciences. The origins of this enterprise lie in hypothetical family budget calculations made by political arithmeticians investigating living standards in the 1600s. Systematic budget inquiries emerge in England in the 1790sand by the end of the 19th century, normative standards are applied to determine lines of poverty across sections of British society. The first 'scientific' study to do this was conducted in England in 1912, local budget surveys flourish here until after the Second World War; by which time poverty researchers were abandoning them, turning instead to the data which was becoming available from national government surveys of family income and expenditure. Towards the close of the century, however, we see researchers trying to escape some of the circularity posed by family spending, which is, after all, constrained by household income. New and competing methods for determining household budget standards emerge before a groundbreaking inquiry attempts to establish a consensus in the field of minimum income standards research.

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Section: The Era Of National Government Surveys and Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Historical Development of Family Budget Standards in Britain, from the 17th Century to the Present

Deeming¹

2010

Soc Policy Adm

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“…In comparing the results for 1953–4 with those for 1960 differences in size of sample and methods of inquiry must also be remembered. Certain data about the 1960 survey is also given in a paper by Dorothy Cole Wedderburn on the evidence of poverty in Britain, which is to be published shortly in The Sociological Review . This paper, and another by Brian Abel‐Smith, completed an interdependent series of three given at the 1962 conference of the British Sociological Association.…”

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confidence: 99%