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Minimum Income Standards: Rural costs
In 2008 CRSP launched the findings of a major piece of research aimed at exploring what people thought was needed in order to have a minimum acceptable standard of living. A Minimum Income Standard for Britain was commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and used a new and innovative methodology, blending expert input and social consensus negotiated between members of the public. Full details about MIS for Britain are available on-line at www.minimumincomestandard.org The chief context of the British minimum income standard is that the current measures of income adequacy – for example, the minimum wage, benefit and tax credit levels, and the Government’s income poverty threshold – are all arbitrary. They have been developed historically by negotiation between policy makers and not through evidence about what people actually need . In contrast, the minimum income standard is grounded in informed social consensus about what people need in order to achieve a minimum, socially acceptable standard of living.
The research was primarily undertaken in towns and cities, but included limited research in rural areas, which highlighted that there may be additional or different costs for those living in rural or remote locations. As a result of this research, the Commission for Rural Communities has commissioned CRSP to explore these additional costs.
A ‘Rural MIS’ will be developed in relation to the MIS for Britain. While the rate of income poverty is lower in rural than urban areas, it is growing faster in rural areas than elsewhere (CRC, 2008). While a higher incidence of low pay in many peripheral and more remote rural areas increases risks of in-work poverty, there is evidence to suggest that rural low income families face higher costs for certain essentials such as food and transport than their urban counterparts (CRC, 2008; Smith et al., 2007). At the same time, however, there is limited systematic evidence about how needs and costs vary in relation to rurality. By providing this evidence, a Rural MIS will serve to promote informed discussion about what rural households need in order to achieve the same living standards as urban households. This, in turn, is required to motivate and inform strategies to identify and address rural inequalities.
Website: www.minimumincomestandard.org
Sponsor: Commission for Rural Communities
Theme: Poverty and Social Exclusion
Start date: May 2009
Projected completion date: July 2010
Project team (CRSP)
Noel Smith, Abigail Davis, Donald Hirsch, Nicola Selby.
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