Minimum Income and Cost of Living Research in Castlemilk (MICoL)
Communities, Inequalities, Poverty
Jan 2026 - Ongoing
Poverty is a growing issue that impacts on around one in five people in the UK, including three in every ten children, damaging their health, wellbeing and life chances. Around one in eleven people are in very deep poverty and this has long term implications for individuals and society. Households with disabled people are more likely to live in poverty than those without disabled people.
The purpose of this research is to generate further evidence about income adequacy for people living on low incomes, focusing particularly on disabled people, in order to help inform the development of future policy on welfare and social justice. By exploring people’s lived experience, this research will complement existing evidence and contribute to current academic and policy debates in this field.
Overview of page
Project objectives
The aim of this research is to explore the minimum income that is required by households in order to meet their essential living costs.
The objectives are to:
- Generate evidence about income adequacy for people living on low incomes, focusing particularly on disabled people.
- Produce qualitative evidence, based on lived experience, that illustrates the choices that people living on low incomes face, and how they manage their limited budget.
- To inform the development of future policy on welfare and social justice.
What is involved
The research is a partnership between Castlemilk Law and Money Advice Centre (CLMAC) and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH). Participants will include people living in Castlemilk from different circumstances and different population groups including households with and without disabled people. It will explore the experiences of people living on very low incomes, including how they cope, where they get support, and what impact this has on their wellbeing. This research includes both quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected from two separate interviews with consenting participants currently living in Castlemilk, Glasgow. It will be undertaken through a partnership between CLMAC and the GCPH between March and October 2026.
Ethics approval has been granted by the University of Glasgow and an Advisory Group has been established to support the research as well as the dissemination of findings.
The research advisory group has representation from Glasgow Disability Alliance and Loughborough University as well as Castlemilk Law and Money Advice Centre and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
Previous