Command over time: time use decisions and constraints among people in poverty

Time is a neglected dimension in social policy analysis. Poverty thresholds and income standards tend to treat time as an apparently limitless resource that can be used to convert limited financial resources into a basic standard of living (Vickery 1977) and policies are rarely assessed in terms of their impact on people's time. This neglect risks the development of policies that place pressure on the time needed to sustain key social capacities or personal development, including time for learning, or sustaining connections and caring for friends and family