Minimum income standards
What are adequate incomes for different households?
Contacts
Working with members of the public and experts to find out what income people need to live on.
Introduction
The purpose of this programme is to provide a robust basis, grounded in what members of the public think is enough money to live on, for definitions of an 'adequate' income.
For a fuller introduction please refer to our Investigations summary (PDF).
Key issues
According to what people said, in order to maintain a minimum, socially acceptable quality of life in April 2009:
- a single working-age adult needs a budget of £167 per week;
- a pensioner couple needs £212;
- a couple with two children needs £389; and
- a lone parent with one child needs £221;
These amounts are after income tax, and do not include housing or childcare costs. Most people relying on basic out-of-work benefits do not reach this standard. A single adult, working full time, needs to earn £7.09 an hour to reach this weekly standard. For almost all household types considered in this study, the minimum income standard is above the threshold used to measure relative poverty.
A new online calculator allows people to see the minimum for their own family type. It can be altered according to their situation so that they can compare their own income with the minimum.
Forthcoming work
The Foundation is funding further development of the programme to 2014. The next update to MIS will be published in July 2010.