Campaigning to end the extra costs of being poor across essential services, such as energy and insurance.
Funding snapshot
Programme area: Ending the poverty premium
Amount: £150,000
Length of grant: 2021-2025
The challenge
Londoners in poverty often pay more for essential goods and services than those who are better off. This is known as the ‘Poverty Premium’, and it applies to things like the cost of household utilities, borrowing money, banking, and insurance. In total the poverty premium costs Londoners on the lowest incomes a combined £368m a year.
The project
Fair By Design is a collaboration between funders including Trust for London, Big Society Capital and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It’s managed by the Barrow Cadbury Trust and leads a campaign to end the poverty premium in the next 10 years.
Every year Fair By Design publishes new research into the cost of the poverty premium across the UK and into the poverty premium in different sectors, such as payment systems. It also works with regulators, government, parliament and industry to eliminate the poverty premium.
Recently, Fair By Design had a big campaign win, as the energy regular announced that those who use a prepayment meter to pay for their energy will no longer pay more than those who pay using a direct debit. This follows many years of campaigning on this issue by Fair By Design and others.
