A Minimum Income Standard in the United Kingdom is an ongoing programme of research to define what level of income is needed to allow a minimum acceptable standard of living in the UK today.

Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, it is carried out by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University, having been developed in partnership between CRSP and the Family Budget Unit at York University.

It brings together two approaches to setting budget standards: the "consensual" negotiation of budgets by panels of ordinary people, and  budgets based on research evidence and expert judgements. In MIS, members of the public negotiate budgets and experts check these decisions and advise where they think there is a case for amending them.

The first results of MIS were launched in July 2008. The results were last updated in July 2012.

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MIS Overview