the following section sets out what may happen to lowincome families under the alternative golden age these two scenarios share some common trends in both future worlds economic growth is expected to be slow to modest on average to both expect to see rising social inequalities and both predict continued pressure on public spending with the generosity of welfare payments declining but there are important differences between the scenarios with differing implications for poverty and social cohesion as a result while the numbers living in absolute poverty have declined the continued rise in inequality has meant that relative poverty has continued to grow albeit at a relatively slow pace while incomes have risen so too have costs particularly for housing education and transport and those at the bottom of the income distribution scale are increasingly excluded in these domains