January 2025 | Fair Point | abrdn Financial Fairness Trust Newsletter

Larger families struggling

The latest Financial Fairness Tracker from the Trust and University of Bristol found a slight increase in people feeling concerned about their personal finances. However, when we drilled down into which groups are hit hardest, the most worrying finding concerned larger families. Those with three children or more are much more likely to be living in damp houses and less likely to be eating a healthy balanced diet.

Our blog considers what can be done

Warning: two-tier workforce ahead

A new report by Timewise finds that in the last five years over 1.3 million more people in desk-based jobs gained access to flexible hours working (rising to 14 per cent of all these workers), while shift-based workers access to flexible hours has not changed. There has been no change in how many shift-based workers have had the ability to vary their start or finish times since 2019 (remaining at 6 per cent, or 200,000 people total). Read more

The messy reality of work incentives

When Iain Duncan-Smith introduced Universal Credit in 2010 it was supposed to be a major simplification of work incentives in the tax and benefit system. In reality, by the time is it fully rolled out in March 2026 it will leave us with an immensely complex system where more than two in five Universal Credit recipients will face deduction rates of more than 55 per cent as their earnings rise.

Prof Ashwin Kumar has some suggestions for how it can be improved

What is it like to work at abrdn Financial Fairness Trust?

If you’re wondering what it is like to work at abrdn Financial Fairness Trust our colleague Vivienne Jackson has pulled together some reflections from the team.

Find out what people said

We are currently recruiting for a new Public Affairs Officer.

Funding application deadline

We fund research, policy work and campaigns to improve living standards for people on low-to-middle incomes.

The next funding deadline is 5th February 2025 (1pm).

Found out more about what we fund and read our guidelines.