Research into minimum income standards and reference budgets around the world is compared in this illuminating collection from leading academics in the field. From countries with long established research traditions to places where it is relatively new, contributors set out the different aims and objectives of investigations into the minimum needs and requirements of populations, and the historical contexts, theoretical frameworks and methodological issues that lie behind each approach. For policymakers, practitioners and social policy and poverty academics, this essential review of learnings to date and future prospects for research is all the more relevant in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, testing health and social protection systems around the globe.

Research into minimum income standards and reference budgets around the world is compared in this illuminating collection from leading academics in the field. From countries with long established research traditions to places where it is relatively new, contributors set out the different aims and objectives of investigations into the minimum needs and requirements of populations, and the historical contexts, theoretical frameworks and methodological issues that lie behind each approach. For policymakers, practitioners and social policy and poverty academics, this essential review of learnings to date and future prospects for research is all the more relevant in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, testing health and social protection systems around the globe.

Outside the UK, budget standards serve as benchmarks for social policy, personal taxation, life insurance, pensions, money advice, debt orders and many other purposes. Accepted standards for nutrition, housing and warmth are used in this report.The study estimates the living costs, in January 1999, of men and women aged 65-74 years, at a living standard called Low Cost but Acceptable (LCA), representing the poverty line. Budgets are presented for single women, single men and couples, as local authority tenants and as owner-occupiers. The research is assisted by discussion groups composed of low-income adults from the relevant age groups. Low Cost but Acceptable incomes for older people contains essential information for individuals and organisations concerned with the well-being of older people, including: central and local government, the pensions industry, employers, residential homes, social services, trade unions, voluntary organisations and older people themselves. It provides recommendations to government about the incomes required by older people to avoid poverty in old age.

Topics discussed in this document include: working definitions of poverty; poverty and income distribution; the changing face of poverty; employment, earnings, and the working poor; the near-poor; the distribution of income in Canada; the distribution of the benefits of Canada's income security system; and poverty and income distribution in Canada and abroad.