Research must be one of the most abused words in the English language. Consider for a moment the dictionary definition: ‘systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to reach new conclusions’. With that in mind, does research really tell us that those in the lowest socio-economic quartile have the most limited household spending power or did we always know the poor were short of cash? But sometimes lessons in the bleedin’ obvious are exactly what we need. While the NCVO rightly highlighted this as a cause for concern, the headline figures were hardly surprising.