This is our response to the Wandsworth Cost of Living Commission call for evidence.
As an organisation focused on the data ecosystems underlying social challenges, we will answer these questions with that perspective. Essentially, the data associated with the cost of living crisis can be a barrier to effective decision-making by stakeholders and policymakers, and can prevent people from getting the support they need.
Many of the findings presented in this evidence briefing have emerged from the ODI’s flagship story on ‘How data can help tackle the cost of living crisis’, released this month. The findings have also derived from previous work on ‘Food insecurity and data infrastructure’ in October 2022 and on ‘Fuel poverty and data infrastructure’ in November 2022. These pieces of work demonstrate the importance of data infrastructure for understanding need and targeting provision - and have also included mapping tools for better understanding the problems surrounding the cost of living and service provision in the UK (discussed further in this document).
Our key recommendations
- Fill data gaps about the cost of living crisis, for example on hidden homelessness through better targeting of underrepresented groups
- Increased use of data standards, more open data sharing, and making sure data collection is timely and regularly updated
- Address the inconsistencies between nations in the UK
- Create collaborative databases that help to understand the cost of living, to address currently disjointed information that is often not shared
- Address the lack of universal definitions for problems such as ‘food insecurity’ and ‘problem debt’