Katie leads JRF's policy work on social security, place and communities. Her areas of expertise include poverty, destitution, Minimum Income Standards, Universal Credit, devolution, regeneration and social infrastructure. Prior to joining JRF, Katie was Associate Director at the Institute for Public Policy Research North. She has also worked for the Campaign for the English Regions, the Yes campaign for an elected North East Regional Assembly, and for an MP.
Email: katie.schmuecker@jrf.org.uk
X: @KatieSchmuecker
Why we need a bold offer for community spaces, groups and activities to reverse decline and tackle double disadvantage in neighbourhoods across England.
What is too often seen as individual failure is the result of conditions and systems failing to respond. With a strong safety net, not one weakened by cuts, young people can reach their potential.
Blunt cuts to social security don’t work — we need to tackle the root causes of need. Hitting 80% employment would reduce Universal Credit spend by £10 billion.
The Government said its child poverty strategy will focus on severe and acute poverty, so it must prioritise large families, lone parents and disabled people.
Adding a protected minimum floor to Universal Credit and removing the two-child limit will reverse declining living standards for families with children and get child poverty falling.
This briefing sets out which children are at greatest risk of such severe and acute poverty, and what a child poverty strategy must include to address it.
Bangladeshi, Black African and Pakistani households are 2 to 3 times more likely to experience persistent very deep poverty, compared to white households.
As winter energy prices rise again, people will be plunged deeper into hardship unless the government acts. The Budget must offer an urgent plan for hardship.
Primary schools and GP surgeries are staggering under the weight of hardship. Anyone serious about improving them needs an urgent action plan for tackling hardship.