Mack and Lansley 1983-2013

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

They also used a relative definition of poverty and a deprivation index to measure poverty.

Their study in 1983 showed how poverty got worse during the years of Thatcher’s New Right government; their follow up study in 2013 asks why, when the UKs twice a rich as in 1983, has poverty doubled?

Mack and Lansley’s studies also show
how the public’s definition of a minimum standard increases in line with rising living standards. Eg early 80’s a phone not considered an essential item but it is. Such findings
illustrate the dynamic nature of relative poverty.

Question 2

Survey

Answer 2

In 2013 Mack and Lansley used a deprivation index in the largest ever survey of poverty in the UK and found the following…

33% of households endure below-average living standards – defined as going without three or more basic necessities of life such as being able to
adequately feed and clothe themselves and their children, and to heat and
insure their homes.

12 million are too poor to take part in all the basic social activities – such as
entertaining friends or attending all the family occasions they would wish to.

Question 3

overall

Answer 3

Mack and Lansley claim their study shatters the myth that
poverty is the fault of the poor and a generous benefit system, they claim that the blame lies with the massive social and economic upheaval that has shifted power from the workforce
to big companies and swelled the ranks of the working poor, a
group increasingly at the mercy of low-pay, zero-hour contracts
and downward social mobility.