2009 - the facts

At this time of year the newspapers are full of reviews of the last twelve months. Well, JRF is no different. We always say that we are "the place to go to get the facts". So I thought it would be fitting to list some interesting facts from 2009.

This is what we know now, that we didn’t know twelve months ago, thanks to JRF research:*  

• Poverty, unemployment and repossessions began to rise years before the recession began
• Over 20% of children in Scotland live in poverty
• The government will not halve child poverty by 2010
• A single person in Northern Ireland needs to earn at least £14,000 per year to be able to afford a minimum socially acceptable standard of living. The same amount as for Great Britain  
• The government will fail to meet its target to build three million new homes by 2020  
• Children's drinking habits are influenced much more strongly by their parents than their peers 
• There are four options which could be implemented immediately to help make the care system fairer: equity release; higher capital limits for care home fees; doubling the personal expenses allowance and; restructuring help for people in nursing homes. 
• In June, nearly half the unemployed in Wales were under 25  
• The poorest communities will continue to suffer recession a long time after recovery has begun.

This is all pretty gloomy – not surprising really considering we are still in a recession. Were there any positives in 2009? There were some: 

• Binge-drinking has decreased among young men 
• Fear of crime has fallen 
• Minimum levels of educational attainment have risen for 11- and 16-year-olds 
• The rate of premature deaths is falling 
• Infant mortality has fallen across all social groups  
• School exclusions have fallen 
• Our social evils project found that there is a real appetite to change society for the better 

In the first half of 2010 there will be a general election. Each of the main political parties claims to be best placed to help people experiencing poverty. Our research highlights just what that really means, and the scale of the challenge they face.

Joseph Rowntree established his Foundation to search out the root causes of poverty and social evil in the UK, so we will always be looking at difficult and unfashionable areas. Our purpose is to shine a light on the UK's poorest people and places and we will continue to do so in 2010.

* OK, so it's not just JRF research, we also use external data.