EXPERT HUB – BRIEFING: SOCIAL SECURITY INVESTMENT

by: Inclusive Growth Contributor | on: 17.11.23 | in: Uncategorised tags: inclusive growth

BRIEFING: How to ENHANCE SOCIAL security investment

By Daisy Sands, Head of Campaigns and Public Affairs at Joseph Rowntree Foundation

This briefing provides a summary of a multi-phase programme of public attitudes work the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) commissioned “Britain Thinks” to undertake over the course of 15 months in 2022-3, in a bid to identify how to design and frame social security investment in a way that maximises public support.    

INTRODUCTION

The evidence is overwhelming that, after more than a decade of cuts, our social security system is now unable to protect people from even deep hardship. The Trussell Trust have found that insufficient income from social security is the most significant driver of food bank need (State of Hunger, 2021), and upcoming research from JRF (June 2023) finds that around 9 in 10 low-income households on Universal Credit have gone without at least one essential – such as food, energy or basic household goods in the last six months, with 54% having gone without three or more.    

The case for serious reform of the system is unequivocal and, whilst investment in social security brings considerable political challenges, recent years have seen a softening of public attitudes¹ and a widening window of opportunity to secure publicly supported reform.    

In a bid to harness this more favorable context, JRF commissioned Britain Thinks² to undertake an expansive programme of public attitudes testing with swing voters, Universal Credit claimants and the wider public, over the course of 15 months in 20223, in order to identify how to design and frame the action needed in a way that avoids triggering unhelpful tropes and maximises public support.    

Here we deployed an innovative ‘feedback loop’ approach where emerging insights from focus group and polling work informed both narrative and (in-house) policy development, which we then took back to the public for further testing and refinement.   

This work, alongside detailed policy analysis, resulted in the development of a ground breaking new policy: the Essentials Guarantee.    

Launched in partnership with the Trussell Trust, this policy would embed, for the first time, a protected minimum level of support for people on Universal Credit, linked to the cost of essentials like food and core bills.   

Final testing found this policy is well received: it is relatable, speaks to the public’s current concerns and, best of all, feels like ‘common sense’. Overall, ‘cold’ support for the policy (that is, unprimed by any corresponding narrative) is high: 72% support the policy, including 62% of 2019 Tory voters and around 80% for 2019 Labour, Liberal Democrat and SNP voters. Only 8% of the public actively oppose the policy.    

This briefing provides a summary of the three phases of work that underpinned the development of this policy and corresponding narrative.