Minimum Income Standards and Reference Budgets

“This important volume comprises contributions from leading scholars presenting diverse approaches to setting minimum income standards and reference budgets in a wide range of country contexts. An essential text for those seeking to understand ‘how much is enough?’” Rod Hick, Cardiff University

"The volume offers a rich, historically and culturally grounded international menu of perspectives on an important social policy approach, with lessons for both research and policy at a time of growing economic insecurity." Baroness Ruth Lister, Loughborough University

Christopher Deeming is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde, with research interests in the field of Comparative and Global Social Policy. His latest works with Policy Press are Minimum Income Standards and Reference Budgets: International and Comparative Policy Perspectives (2020) and Reframing Global Social Policy: Social Investment for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (2019).

Foreword ~ John Veit-Wilson

Part I: Introduction

An introduction to minimum income standards and reference budgets: International and comparative policy perspectives ~ Christopher Deeming

Part II: Case Studies

From normative budget standards to consensual minimum income standards in the UK ~ Jonathan Bradshaw

Minimum Essential Standards of Living research in Ireland ~ Bernadette Mac Mahon and Robert Thornton

The French experience of reference budgets ~ Pierre Concialdi

Minimum income research in Japan: its development and political implications ~ Aya K. Abe

Measuring needs and setting standards in Singapore ~ Kok-Hoe Ng, Yu-Wei Neo, Youyenn Teo, Ad Maulod and Yi-Ting Ting

A South African pilot of the Minimum Income Standards approach ~ Gemma Wright, Matt Padley and Wanga Zembe-Mkabile

Reference budgets as tools for everyday life, evaluation and policymaking in Finland ~ Anna-Riitta Lehtinen and Kristiina Aalto

Belgian reference budgets for social participation and there use for policy purposes ~ Bérénice Storms

The development, value and application of budget standards: reflecting on the Australian experience ~ Peter Saunders

Estimating the cost of raising a child in Catalonia through the reference budgets approach ~ Irene Cussó-Parcerisas, Elena Carrillo Álvarez and Jordi Riera Romaní

Measuring poverty in the Netherlands: the generalised reference budget approach ~ J. Cok Vrooman, Benedikt Goderis, Stella Hoff and Bart van Hulst

The Norwegian reference budget ~ Marthe Hårvik Austgulen and Elling Borgeraas

Minimum budgets for Danish families ~ Jens Bonke and Anders Eiler Wiese Christensen

The Swedish Consumer Agency’s calculations of reference values for some of the most common household expense categories ~ Malin Lindquist Skogar and Ingrid Eriksson

Part III: Cross-national and comparative perspectives;

The Slovenian experience with three methods for defining the minimum income ~ Nada Stropnik

Applying the Minimum Income Standard in diverse national contexts ~ Matt Padley and Abigail Davis

The steep and winding road to comparable reference budgets in Europe ~ Tim Goedemé

Adequate income in Portugal: a comparison of two estimation methods ~ José A. Pereirinha, Elvira Pereira, Francisco Branco, Dália Costa and Inês Amaro

Part IV: Policy and practice

Basic needs budgets in policy and practice ~ Gordon M. Fisher

Establishing a national standard: the role of the UK's Minimum Income Standard in policy and practice ~ Donald Hirsch

Minimum Income Standards in the Basic Income debate ~ Malcolm Torry

Part V: Conclusions

Minimum income standards and reference budgets: past, present, future? ~ Christopher Deeming.