Before joining JRF, Peter worked for almost 20 years in the Civil Service. He led on a number of issues at the Department of Work and Pensions, including poverty analysis, policies, and developing measures for persistent poverty and child poverty. Previously, he worked on fuel poverty and energy price analysis. Peter is interested in all elements of poverty measurement and is passionate about making sure analysis has impact. He oversees JRF's monitoring strategy and research reports.
Email: peter.matejic@jrf.org.uk
X: @StatsPeter
As the pressure of the cost of living crisis mounts, the Government has the opportunity to return incomes to growth for low- and middle-income households.
As Scotland reviews its child poverty targets, Scottish Government must stay committed to meaningful progress, keeping income measures as the core part of the targets.
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 Department of Work and Pensions have improved the income data we use to measure poverty in the UK. Here’s what this means for talking about poverty in the UK.
Investment in social security will reduce poverty this April, but progress will stall without a comprehensive set of actions for more than economic growth alone.
Measures in the Budget, especially removing the two-child limit, ease some pain and significantly reduce child poverty, but incomes are projected to fall more in this parliament than any on record.
Average incomes are expected to fall by £550 over this parliament, meaning the Government risks having the worst living standards performance of any parliament on record.
Very deep poverty is rising in Wales. More people using food banks, unable to heat their homes, or living in temporary accommodation, means the human cost and impact on public services is huge.
This new analysis shows the level of proposed cuts for some example families, and how multiple cuts interact with one other.