Using Minimum Income Standard Data

MIS has enabled us to fairly assess applicant’s financial situations using empirical data. It provides us with a transparent and objective basis for assessing financial hardship, and helped us to focus our resources on supporting those beneficiaries most in need.
Ben Cahill-Nicholls, Chief Executive of Clergy Support Trust

A large number of individuals and organisations make use of Minimum Income Standard (MIS) data on an ongoing basis to support and underpin their work. These range from charities and benevolent organisations, to housing providers, researchers focused on income and living standards, through to credit checking agencies and organisations in the financial services sector.

Having independently established, publicly determined and regularly updated living standards data provides a benchmark which can be used, for example:

• as the basis for decision making about eligibility for financial support by charities
• to support economic profiling of households within a particular locality to inform policy and practice on the ground
• to calculate the level of support provided to beneficiaries to boost incomes and relieve poverty

We are always keen to support new uses and users of our data, with advice and guidance on how to make best use of MIS, and where possible to provide MIS data in the most appropriate format. Please do get in touch with any questions about how you or your organisation may be able to make use of MIS in your work.

MIS combines methodological rigour and excellent clarity of presentation, providing an invaluable resource to academics, policy-makers and a broad audience interested in social policy, poverty and related issues. I have drawn on MIS [data] over many years, most recently in a project setting out proposals for a new social security system in which, after lengthy consideration of options, the conclusion was MIS offers by far the strongest rationale for the setting of benefit rates and that is a message the project is now disseminating widely
Michael Orton, Commission on Social Security