This discussion paper explores how the affordability of home ownership has changed between generations over the last half century. It shows that the common framing of mortgage affordability places far too much emphasis on short-term interest rates, and far too little on inflation and wage growth.

This paper traces the emergence of a poorly understood social challenge and one which symbolises Britain’s broken ‘social settlement’ - the continued rise in working poverty since the beginning of this century.

Most single working-age adults in Canada on social assistance are living in deep poverty, due to provincial governments’ efforts to curb welfare dependency and maintain work incentives. In this paper, the author calls on provincial policy-makers to increase social assistance benefits for singles to help meet their basic daily needs and counter the debilitating effects...

The Morrison Government’s decision to reduce the rate of JobSeeker by $150 from January 2021 will push an additional 190,000 Australians below the poverty line—including 50,000 children—and have a devastating impact on low income families, argues this paper.

Energy hardship can include both absolute and relative measures of financial hardship, as well as circumstances where residents limit their energy use for normal daily activities. This research examines the incidence of energy hardship for Australian low income renters, and considered strategies and policy actions to reduce its impact on the lives of such households.