poverty

Millions will spend Christmas in ‘Dickensian conditions’

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This article was originally posted 6/12/24 but was deleted, probably my mistake.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/millions-will-spend-christmas-dickensian-conditions

A general view of housing in Scarborough, North Yorkshire

MILLIONS of people are spending a fourth Christmas in “Dickensian conditions” due to fuel poverty, a damning report revealed today.

Warm This Winter found that 16 per cent of adults, equal to 8.8 million people, in Britain live in cold, damp homes, exposed to the health risks of living in fuel poverty.

The campaign group has warned that the government’s Warm Homes Plan will come too late for one in 10 people who have frequently experienced dangerous mould levels in their homes this year.

Poorly insulated homes risk damp and mould spreading, which the NHS warns can lead to respiratory issues, infections, allergies and asthma.

Such conditions can also increase the risk of heart disease, strokes and other severe health problems.

Cold homes can cause and worsen respiratory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, poor mental health, dementia and hypothermia as well as cause and slow recovery from injury.

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End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “The sheer numbers of people living in cold, damp homes this winter should send alarm bells throughout Westminster.

“These shocking figures have hardly changed since last year and with energy bills heading upwards again in January, the situation is now critical for the government.”

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Original aticle at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/millions-will-spend-christmas-dickensian-conditions

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue ReadingMillions will spend Christmas in ‘Dickensian conditions’

Scottish budget vows to scrap two-child benefits cap

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-budget-vows-to-scrap-two-child-benefits-cap

Finance Secretary Shona Robison during a visit to Logan Energy Limited in Edinburgh ahead of the publication of the Scottish Budget, December 4, 2024

SCOTTISH Finance Secretary Shona Robison announced that the two-child cap on benefits will be scrapped in Scotland as she pledged record spending for both the NHS and councils in next year’s Budget today.

The moved to scrap the cap would lift 15,000 children out of poverty, Ms Robison said.

She told MSPs as she outlined her draft Budget plans in Holyrood: “Be in no doubt that the cap will be scrapped.”

Ms Robison slammed the UK Labour government’s inaction on a “pernicious” policy considered to be a key driver of child poverty by organisations such as the Poverty Alliance.

She challenged the UK government to work with them and share the necessary information to “build a system” to mitigate it “as early as we can in 2026.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-budget-vows-to-scrap-two-child-benefits-cap

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue ReadingScottish budget vows to scrap two-child benefits cap

Eradicate child poverty in 20 years, coalition of children’s charities tell government

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/eradicate-child-poverty-20-years-coalition-childrens-charities-say

Stocks of food at the Trussell Trust Brent Foodbank, Neasden, London

A COALITION of 120 children’s charities today called for the complete eradication of child poverty in 20 years, increasing pressure for government to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

The End Child Poverty Coalition set out eight tests it said should be met by the government’s taskforce strategy if it is to succeed in tackling and ending child poverty.

Among them was that government must ultimately aim to halve child poverty in the next 10 years, and completely eradicate it in the next 20.

The coalition also said the two-child limit to benefit payments must be scrapped, estimating this could immediately lift around 300,000 children out of poverty, and that “further fundamental reform” to the social security system is needed.

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End Child Poverty Coalition chair Joseph Howes said: “Child poverty is a blight on our society and is also completely avoidable.

“If the government is serious about tackling and ultimately eradicating child poverty in this country, it needs to be bold and ambitious in its investments, including immediately scrapping the two-child limit to benefit payments.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/eradicate-child-poverty-20-years-coalition-childrens-charities-say

Continue ReadingEradicate child poverty in 20 years, coalition of children’s charities tell government

100,000 older people at risk of being pushed into poverty by winter fuel cuts

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/100000-older-people-at-risk-of-being-pushed-into-poverty-by-winter-fuel-cuts

An elderly woman counting loose change

PENSIONER anger erupted at Labour as government figures conceded that 100,000 older people risk being pushed into poverty by the cut in winter fuel payments.

The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) renewed demands that ministers do a U-turn on the controversial cut, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves shortly after assuming office.

NPC general secretary Jan Shortt said she was “gravely concerned” by figures included in an analysis revealed by the Department for Work and Pensions this week.

These showed that the removal of the benefit will plunge around 50,000 pensioners into relative poverty next year, and the same number again by the end of the decade.

Ms Shortt said: “We find it completely unacceptable that an extra 50,000 to 100,000 older people will fall into poverty as a result of the decision to means-test the winter fuel payment.

“The message to older people is that the government is happy to accept them as collateral damage. The government must know these older people are not the ‘broadest shoulders’ they keep saying must pay to fix the economic deficit.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/100000-older-people-at-risk-of-being-pushed-into-poverty-by-winter-fuel-cuts

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue Reading100,000 older people at risk of being pushed into poverty by winter fuel cuts

More than one in three children in poverty as UK deprivation hits record high

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/18/more-than-one-in-three-uk-children-poverty-deprivation-record-high

An extra 260,000 children are on the breadline since before the Covid pandemic. Photograph: Orlando Britain/Alamy

Exclusive: Study finds almost quarter of UK population living in poverty, reaching the highest level this century

More than one in three children and a quarter of adults are living in poverty in the UK as deprivation levels rise to the highest in the 21st century, according to a landmark report.

The study by the Social Metrics Commission (SMC), which uses measures recently adopted by the UK government, found the cost of living crisis had plunged 2 million more people into severe hardship since 2019.

In total, more than 16 million people are defined as living in poverty, or 24% of the UK population – the highest since comparable records began in 2000.

Children accounted for the biggest rise of any social group falling into poverty, the report found, with an extra 260,000 on the breadline since before the Covid pandemic, meaning a record 36%, or 5.2 million children, were in deprivation.

It is likely to reignite calls for Labour to scrap the two-child benefit cap as, of those 5.2 million children, more than half (55%) lived in families with three or more children. About one in four of the children in poverty lived in a single-child household, with the same proportion in a two-child family.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/18/more-than-one-in-three-uk-children-poverty-deprivation-record-high

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.
Continue ReadingMore than one in three children in poverty as UK deprivation hits record high