# The Minimum Income Standard for the United Kingdom

**Source**: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crsp/minimum-income-standard/
**Parent**: https://volume.lboro.ac.uk/creating-inclusive-communities/index.html

Regular research on the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) produces budgets for different household types, based on what members of the public think you need for a minimum acceptable standard of living in the UK. It is carried out by Loughborough University's Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP).

[MIS reports](https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crsp/minimum-income-standard/reports/) have described and updated the UK standard since 2008, calculated variations for London and rural areas and addressed themes including the additional cost of disability and whether a 'greener' minimum is possible.

The [Joseph Rowntree Foundation](https://www.jrf.org.uk/) funds the main research.  Other funders have included [Trust for London](https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/), [Thomas Pocklington Trust](https://www.pocklington-trust.org.uk/) and [Highlands and Islands Enterprise](http://www.hie.co.uk/).\
The [number of people living below MIS](https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crsp/our-research/households-below-minimum-income-standard/) is calculated annually.

## What can the MIS be used for?

The [experience of living below MIS](https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/falling-short-experiences-families-below-minimum-income-standard) is monitored through a group of families on low incomes, tracked over time.\
MIS is used widely in the UK for policy, practice and analysis.  Notably, it is used:

to [calculate the Living Wage](https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crsp/minimum-income-standard/living-wage/)

by charities as a benchmark for helping people in financial need

as part of the [Scottish Government's fuel poverty measure and targets](https://www.gov.scot/publications/draft-fuel-poverty-scotland-2018/pages/4/)

to calculate the [cost of a child](https://cpag.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/report/cost-child-2018)

in legal arguments including in a challenge to the affordability of employment tribunal fees, upheld by the [Supreme Court](https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2015-0233-judgment.pdf)