Professor Matt Padley is Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP), where he conducts world-leading research relating to living standards and poverty in the UK and abroad. Matt’s work focuses on public conceptions and understanding of living standards, and how these can be used within public and social policy. Much of his research has centred on the development and application of the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) methodology, and he has worked with teams in Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa and Thailand on MIS research in these countries. He has overall responsibility for the quantitative research undertaken within CRSP, and supports and advises a wide range of organisations on their use of MIS data. In recent years, he has pioneered innovative and world-leading research on Retirement Living Standards which has been adopted across the UK pensions industry, providing an evidence base for people thinking about and planning their retirements, and informing the decisions of 35 million savers across 100 pension schemes in the UK. He is a board member of the EU Reference Budget platform and a member of the Global Living Wage Steering Group.
Matt’s research focuses on income, living standards, poverty and social exclusion, both in the UK and in other countries. Running through his research is a concern with exploring public understanding and definitions of living standards, often in opposition to more ‘official’ living standards indicators and measures. His research seeks to understand and explore the patterns, causes and consequences of social disadvantage, particularly with regard to income, and his research has included extensive work on living standards and income adequacy, housing affordability, poverty measurement and international conceptions of living standards. Matt has a particular interest in exploring the application of the MIS approach in the global South.
Since 2018, Matt has also pioneered work on Retirement Living Standards, building on the established MIS programme, that has been adopted across the UK pensions industry, providing an evidence base for savers in thinking about and planning for retirement.
As an experienced qualitative and quantitative researcher and analyst, Matt has also worked on a wide range of other projects including national policy evaluations, secondary data analysis of large UK surveys and in-depth qualitative research with low-income households and individuals. Matt has advised and consulted for a wide range of organisations, including Birmingham City Council, the Money and Pensions Service, Oxfam and Unite the Union.
- Padley, M., Stone, J. and Robinson, E. (2024) Households living below a Minimum Income Standard: 2008-2022. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
- Padley, M., Blackwell, C., Davis, A., Hill, K. and Stone, J. (2024).Retirement living standards in the UK in 2023. London: Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association
- Stone, J., Shepherd, C., Ellis, W. and Padley, M. (2023) Constructing a Decent Living Index. Edinburgh: abrdn Financial Fairness Trust
- Padley, M., Davis, A., Blackwell, C., Shepherd, C. and Stone, J. (2023) A Minimum Income Standard for London 2022. London: Trust for London
- Padley, M. and Stone, J. (2023) A Minimum Income Standard for the United Kingdom in 2023. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Padley, M. and Davis, A. (2023) The Minimum Income Standard: Understanding the cost of education to households in the UK. London: Child Poverty Action Group
- Padley, M. (2022) A minimum London weighting - a revised and updated approach. London: Trust for London.
- Wright, G., Padley, M. and Zembe-Mkabile, W. (2020) 'A South African pilot of the Minimum Income Standards Approach’ in C. Deeming (ed.) Minimum Income Standards and Reference Budgets: international and comparative policy perspectives. Bristol: Policy Press
- Padley, M. and Davis, A. (2020) 'Applying the Minimum Income Standard in diverse national contexts’ in C. Deeming (ed.) Minimum Income Standards and Reference Budgets: international and comparative policy perspectives. Bristol: Policy Press
- Hirsch, D., Concialdi, P., Math, A., Padley, M., Pereira, E., Pereirinha, J., and Thornton, R. (2020) The Minimum Income Standard and equivalisation: Reassessing relative costs of singles and couples and of adults and children, Journal of Social Policy, 50(1), pp.148–167
- Hirsch, D., Padley, M., Stone, J. and Valadez-Martinez, L. (2020) The Low Income Gap: A New Indicator Based on a Minimum Income Standard, Soc Indic Res, 149, pp.67–85.
- Padley, M. and Shepherd, C. (2019) Developing Retirement Living Standards. London: The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.
- Padley, M., Marshall, L. and Valadez-Martinez, L. (2018) Defining and measuring housing affordability using the Minimum Income Standard, Housing Studies, 34(8), pp.1307-1329.
- O'Connell, R., Owen, C., Padley, M., Simon, A., and Brannen, J. (2018) Which Types of Family are at Risk of Food Poverty in the UK? A Relative Deprivation Approach, Social Policy and Society, 18(1), pp. 1–18.
- Valadez-Martínez, L., Padley, M. and Torres Penagos, M.F. (2017) A dignified standard of living in Mexico: results of a pilot study of the Minimum Income Standard approach, Soc Indic Res, 140, 695–714.
- Davis, A., Hirsch, D. and Padley, M. (2017) The Minimum Income Standard as a benchmark of a ‘participatory social minimum’, Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 26(1) pp. 19-34.