Poverty Action Group - Poverty Monitor

Poverty Action Group - Poverty Monitor

Taken from the Greater Manchester Poverty Action Group website.

The Poverty Monitor is designed to help people concerned about poverty in Greater Manchester to monitor the level of poverty, its distribution across the city, and the trends.

Overview

The ‘poverty-line’ in England is often understood as 60 per cent of the median (middle) household income. This can be measured before or after housing costs. It can be measured against the current middle (relative poverty) or against the middle at a fixed point in time (absolute poverty).

At national and regional level, we know how many people are below the poverty line from survey data. But this cannot be broken down to local level.

On the GM Poverty Action Group website, there are a range of other indicators which tell us about what is happening to households on low incomes, and about some of the causes of low income. We also add in qualitative data about what poverty means to people in Greater Manchester. Together these data paint a picture of poverty in our city.

Wherever possible, we compare the latest data with the situation in 2010, when the government changed, and 2007, before the financial crash, to understand how things have changed over time.

We compare Greater Manchester to the North-West and England, and compare each of the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester to each other. Where possible we also show data at neighbourhood level (ward or Lower Super Output Area or LSOA).

This Poverty Monitor was developed in 2014 by researchers at the University of Manchester, working in partnership with the Greater Manchester Poverty Action Group.

The University donated staff time as part of its commitment to making a difference and addressing inequalities in Greater Manchester.

The project team comprised staff from the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) and the School of Social Sciences (SoSS):

• Professor Ruth Lupton
• Professor Cecilia Wong
• Liz Richardson
• Dr Brian Webb
• Dr Richard Kingston
• Moozhan Shakeri