When Times Are Tough: Four families' stories

ippr has examined how 58 low-income families manage their day-to-day finances. The innovative research, which took place in London, Newcastle, Nottingham and Glasgow in 2008-2009, has provided insight into the pressures that many low-income families face as they struggle to balance their income and expenditure.

We are publishing four case studies from the research to illustrate the impact of broad social and economic trends at household level and share knowledge and data. Each case study has been chosen to provide an individual family narrative around poverty and the economic crisis.

They focus on:

• Living with a disability - how one family in Newcasle is coping after an accident left the main breadwinner disabled and unable to work.
• Lone parents and low pay - why employment has not been a route out of poverty for one lone-parent family in London.
• Redundancy - how redundancy has dramatically changed the financial circumstances of one household in Glasgow and its impact on daily family life.
• The poverty premium - perceptions of the current financial crisis through the eyes of one family in Nottingham and how this affects the premium low-income families pay on essential goods and services.

These case studies were published alongside Saving and Asset-Building in Low-Income Households.