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Tag: poverty

  • Nearly one million people only £10 a week away from poverty, study finds

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    Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
    Image of cash and pre-payment meter key

    https://www.bigissue.com/news/poverty-uk-joseph-rowntree-foundation-general-election/

    There have been six prime ministers since this country last made sustained progress on reducing poverty

    Nearly one million people in the UK are only £10 a week away from poverty, a study has found, in what has been called a “stain on the moral conscience of our nation”. 

    Analysis from poverty charity Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has revealed that alongside the estimated 14.2 million people in poverty in the UK, further millions are “teetering on the edge” and unable to afford essentials. 

    The JRF’s research found that just under a million people, including 200,000 children, are now within £10 a week from the poverty line. 

    An additional 3.2 million people in the UK – equivalent to the population of Wales – are only £40 a week from deep poverty. 

    The charity added that seven million households across the country had gone without essentials, like showers, toiletries or adequate clothing, in the last six months – or had gone hungry, or cut or skipped meals in the last 30 days. 

    For those already in poverty, large numbers are close to “deep” or “very deep” poverty lines, meaning they are living on incomes of less than 50% or 40% of the UK average.

    Around six million people were reported as living in very deep poverty in 2022/23, which is 1.5 million more than two decades ago.

    Politicians are missing a ‘level of urgency’ on poverty

    The JRF’s CEO Paul Kissack called on the government to act on rising poverty levels, as well as those “teetering on the edge” of poverty, telling whoever wins the general election on 4 July to “make reversing this dismal trend a priority”. 

    “There have been six prime ministers since this country last made sustained progress on reducing poverty,” he explained, referencing when poverty last fell consistently in the UK, between 1999/2000 and 2004/2005 under Tony Blair. 

    “During that time we’ve seen a sustained rise in the number of people in deep poverty, with hardship and destitution growing even faster.”

    He added: “Our political leaders must be specific and ambitious about how they will tackle poverty. But so far there hasn’t been anything like the level of urgency from either Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer that we need to see. Pointing to future growth as a panacea just won’t cut it.  

    “Tonight’s (4 June) debate is a chance for both leaders to set out their plans and demonstrate they are serious about addressing hardship. Failure to act is a political and moral choice ≠ and one they should expect to be judged on.” 

    …

    https://www.bigissue.com/news/poverty-uk-joseph-rowntree-foundation-general-election/

  • Anti-poverty charity urges politicians to set out plan to tackle ongoing hardship for low-income households

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    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/06/anti-poverty-charity-urges-politicians-to-set-out-plan-to-tackle-ongoing-hardship-for-low-income-households/

    ‘We need our politicians to set out how they will bring an end to this relentless reality of hardship in the general election campaign.’

    The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has called on all politicians to urgently address the reality of years-long hardship for families on low incomes.

    The call was made following research conducted by the anti-poverty charity which found that the bottom 20 percent of low-income households are facing the same levels of hardship as they were last year, despite inflation falling.

    The findings of the Savanta survey of 4,092 adults in the UK in low-income households were scaled by the JRF to population level.

    From May 2022 to May 2024, the number of households going without essentials, such as showers, heating, and adequate clothing, ranged from 6.9 million to 7.3 million. Around 5 million households continue to go hungry, skip meals and cut back on food.

    …

    On May 24, during his general election campaign launch in Scotland, Keir Starmer said the party will not be able to afford to scrap the two-child benefit cap if Labour wins the next general election.

    The policy was introduced by the Tories in 2017, and prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for third or subsequent children. It is said to be one of the biggest drivers of rising child poverty – up from 3.6 million children below the poverty line in 2010/11 to 4.2 million in 2021/22.

    Starmer said that while he was committed to ending child poverty he would not make promises he couldn’t afford. The announcement caused disquiet among senior Labour politicians. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, said he should promise that “when there is the headroom to do something, this clearly should be at the front of the queue.”

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/06/anti-poverty-charity-urges-politicians-to-set-out-plan-to-tackle-ongoing-hardship-for-low-income-households/

    Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
    Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.

  • Benefit Fraud: The Right-Wing Lie that Refuses to Die

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    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/benefit-fraud-the-right-wing-lie-that-refuses-to-die/

    For many right-wing politicians and their media allies, ‘welfare cheats’ is a line that bears endless repetition.

    News broke this week that the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is investigating the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)  over its treatment of disabled people, specifically whether the department failed to make reasonable adjustments for people with learning disabilities or long-term mental health conditions when carrying out benefit health assessments. 

    “The DWP has been failing disabled people for decades now” and “full transparency and accountability is imperative,” said David Linden MP, the SNP’s Social Justice Spokesperson, in response to news of the investigation.

    For years, successive Tory governments and the media ecosystems that support them, have demonised benefit claimants, presenting them as ‘scroungers,’ ‘frauds’ and ‘cheats.’ Who can forget the Sun’s ‘Beat the Cheat’ campaign in 2012, encouraging readers to be “patriotic” by reporting suspected benefit cheats to a benefit fraud hotline? In 2016, the then chancellor George Osborne refused to apologise for attempting to slice £4.4bn off benefits for people with disabilities, as he defended his controversial budget which led to the resignation of the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

    Today, very little has changed, except that the country is mired in a cost-of-living crisis that has fuelled the sharpest increase in absolute poverty in 30 years.

    …

    Disability benefit fraud a ‘non-issue’

    Meanwhile, separate and more recent DWP figures show that there were almost no recorded losses to the taxpayer due to fraud in the disability benefits system in the financial year ending 2024.

    Disability Living Allowance fraud was just 0.1 percent, rounded down to £0m. PIP cheating was found to be 0 percent in the same period, the data showed.

    PIP overpayments represented 0.4 percent, equating to around £90m lost in a year, marking a significant decrease from the previous year, when such overpayments stood 1.1 percent (£200m). The overpayments were said to be mainly due to errors made by the department when allocating award levels at the assessment stage.

    Responding to the figures, Mikey Erhardt, campaigner at Disability Rights UK described PIP fraud as a ‘non-issue.’

    “New data shows what we, as disabled people, have known for years – PIP fraud is a non-issue. PIP fraud is now the lowest on record – despite the government placing fraud front and centre of their latest public announcements,” he said.

    Erhardt added: “If the government is concerned about fraud, it would be serious about the £15.2bn that multinational companies hide from the UK via tax havens. Money which could fund public services that we all need and use. Instead, disabled people continue to be demonised.”

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/benefit-fraud-the-right-wing-lie-that-refuses-to-die/

    UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak describes his benefit to already filthy rich fossil fuel investors and how he hates poor people.
    UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak describes his benefit to already filthy rich fossil fuel investors and how he hates poor people.

  • Voters support calls for two-child benefit limit to be scrapped

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    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/voters-support-calls-for-two-child-benefit-limit-to-be-scrapped/

    Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
    Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.

    It comes amid calls from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to scrap the two-child benefit limit

    A new poll shows that voters support calls to scrap the two-child benefit limit, a policy which charities and think tanks say has pushed hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.

    The poll, carried out by Opinium, for Save the Children and shared exclusively with i, suggests that this would be a politically popular move for Labour, ‘with 39 per cent of the public claiming it would make them more likely to vote for whichever party made the pledge’.

    It comes amid calls from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to scrap the two-child benefit limit, with the archbishop calling it a cruel and immoral policy that plunges hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.

    The two-child benefit cap prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017. It was introduced by the former chancellor George Osborne in his austerity drive with the aim of encouraging parents of larger families to find a job or work more hours.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/voters-support-calls-for-two-child-benefit-limit-to-be-scrapped/

  • Shocking poll shows the scale of children going hungry at school

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    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/shocking-poll-shows-the-scale-of-children-going-hungry-at-school/

    Shameful number of children getting to class too hungry to learn makes the case for universal free school meals

    The ‘heartbreaking‘ rise of child poverty in the UK has been highlighted in a recent poll that revealed a shameful number of children going to school hungry in England. 

    Four in ten teachers said their students were showing up to class too hungry to learn, which rose to 63% in the poorest areas, a new poll by Teacher Tapp reported by the Mirror, found. For more than a fifth of teachers, the issue had become worse since September. 

    This has led to schools stepping in to address hunger where pupils don’t qualify for free school meals, with four in ten teachers saying their school is offering free school dinners to hungry children who don’t qualify. This rose to over half in the most deprived areas.  

    The poll has emphasised the argument made by campaigners that free school meals should be extended to all primary school pupils, as strict eligibility criteria means many children living in poverty miss out. 

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/shocking-poll-shows-the-scale-of-children-going-hungry-at-school/