Foundations: Good jobs, settled homes, access to justice

This briefing is part of a series setting out a wide range of policy recommendations which would make a significant difference to deep poverty and destitution in the UK. These span social security, migration and asylum, local relationships and safety nets, and tackling homelessness and rough sleeping. These are all essential areas for action and build on the work of JRF and many other expert organisations in this space.

Recommendations:

• Working with employers on job redesign, and more employers joining the movement to pay the real Living Wage.
• Strengthening workers’ rights to more secure and flexible work and protecting people from abuse and exploitation through investing in effective labour market enforcement.
• Ensuring more people can access a safe and settled home by building more homes for social rent and taking action to shift tenures towards those that provide more security within our existing housing stock.
• Enhance protections for renters, including banning no-fault evictions, through passing the Renters’ Reform Bill. Tackle stark inequalities and structural racism in access to homes across the UK, including through abolishing Right to Rent checks.
• Reforming access to legal aid so that destitution and deep poverty never prevent people from accessing legal aid, and a lack of access to advice and aid never pushes people into deep poverty.