Last updated by Admin, February 4, 2009

Date:  15 January 2009

The UK Institute for Public Policy Research recently released a report which makes the case for a strategy to deal with the issues of low pay and in-work poverty. The author, Kayte Lawton, stresses that such a strategy must also ensure that it emphasises job quality and career progression whilst being flexible enough to recognise the needs of different families' situations.

Lawton believes that it is essential for the Brown Labour Government to tackle the challenge of in-work poverty if it is to meet its target of ending child poverty by 2020. She forwards a number of recommendations that also aim to overcome the tendency of the UK labour market to "militate against single solutions" by developing "tailored packages of support that reflect the UK's economic and spatial diversity". These recommendations include:

- Ensuring that employment, skills and economic development functions be integrated and decentralised across the UK

- Rolling out a ( UK) national programme for Workplace Performance

- Creating a more strategic system of workplace training which addresses the needs of the whole workforce

- Develop and roll-out a package of personalised in-work support targeted at vulnerable workers

- Enabling better access to information about pay and progression opportunities for workers and job seekers

- Ensuring that the welfare and tax credit systems better reflect the needs of different families

This is a timely report as governments across the world grapple with producing policy answers to the current Global Financial Crisis whilst trying to improve the living standards of their citizens.

This report can be downloaded from the IPPR website

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