Our publications

Below are some of our recent publications, to see more please select a specific year.

Older publications

A Minimum Income Standard for Students 2025 A Minimum Income Standard for Students 2025 Report builds on the MIS for students published in 2024, which focused on second- and third-year students in shared private rented accommodation, by developing a new MIS for first-year students and students in both university-owned and private halls. Based on focus groups with students situated across the UK, the authors constructed and costed a minimum basket of goods and services to develop an estimate for how much students need – to cover their basic costs and be able to participate in university life. The findings from 2024 have also been uprated, allowing us to estimate, for the first time, the full living costs for the whole of a student’s time in higher education. Hill, K., Padley, M. and Freeman, J. (2025) A Minimum Income Standard for Students. London: Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI)

Towards a Scottish Minimum Digital Living Standard: Phase 2 Blackwell, C., Hill, K., D’Arcy. J., Yates, S., Harris, R., Polizzi, G., Wessels, B. and Challinor, J. (2025) Towards a Scottish Minimum Digital Living Standard: Phase 2. Edinburgh: Scottish Government.

A Minimum Income Standard for London 2024 This latest research looking at what is needed for a decent living standard in London focuses on households with children. Groups of parents in Inner and Outer London discussed and agreed what households with children need to have a minimum socially acceptable standard of living in 2024. The research looked at the difference in a minimum household budget between the capital and elsewhere in the UK, and at the implications of this difference for the adequacy of social security and wages. Finally, the findings of the research were used to look at the number of households without the income needed to meet this minimum standard in the capital and how this has changed over time.

A Minimum Digital Living Standard for UK Households in 2025: Full report The Minimum Digital Living Standard collaborates with members of the public to set out what households in the UK need to communicate, connect and engage in today’s digital world. This report covers the needs of pension-age people, working-age people and households with children. Hill, K., Blackwell, C., Balchin, E., Stone, E. and Yates, S. (2025) A Minimum Digital Living Standard for UK Households in 2025: Full report. Sheffield: Good Things Foundation.

Retirement Living Standards in the UK: 2024 update This short update report provides detail on the key budget areas that make up the Retirement Living Standards (RLS), setting out what is needed in 2024 at a minimum, moderate and comfortable standard of living. It reviews the impact of updating the moderate and comfortable RLS through changes in prices captured through the Consumer Prices Index between April 2023 and April 2024. It also sets out the key changes in the minimum retirement living standard resulting from new Minimum Income Standard (MIS) research on what is needed for a minimum socially acceptable standard of living published in 2024. Padley, M., Ellis, W. and Balchin, E. (2025) Retirement Living Standards in the UK; 2024 update. London: Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association