Instead of a war on poverty, it is a war on the poor. Every day we read in the news about another poor person being demonised as lazy or a benefits cheat. People are accused of being poor because of their lifestyle choices; they are work-shy, they lack aspiration and ambition, they borrow too much and spend too much, they are single parents, they are bad parents, they drink, they take drugs. It's a never-ending message. The media has encouraged us to see poor people and their personality faults and individual failings as entirely different from simple people like ourselves. Viewing low-income people as “other” blinds us to the causes of poverty.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, reads from the same script. He will say: “Getting a family into work, supporting strong relationships, getting parents off drugs and out of debt — all this can do more for a child’s well-being than any amount of money in out-of-work benefits...For those who are able to work, work has to be seen as the best route out of poverty. For work is not just about more money — it is transformative. It’s about taking responsibility for yourself and your family.”
Who are the poor? Well, firstly, most have jobs. They are poor because their wages are low and they cannot get full time work. 1.4 million part-timers are looking for more hours to work.
Getting a job is no guarantee of escaping poverty in modern Britain, according to Oxfam. Factors including rising increasing unemployment, lack of reasonably paid jobs, rising living costs, falling incomes and the proposed deep cuts to welfare and public services are buffeting the UK’s most vulnerable citizens. Currently six in every 10 of the 7.9 million working-age adults in poverty are from working households. The charity warned that inequality is growing in the UK, as the gap between the earnings of rich and poor widens. UK average earnings shrunk 4.4 per cent last year, while the incomes of FTSE 100 company directors rose by 49 per cent.
Oxfam’s Director of UK Poverty, Chris Johnes, said: “Despite the Government’s rhetoric about making work pay, having a job is no longer necessarily enough to lift someone out of poverty; more working age adults in poverty now live in working households than in workless ones. The Government is justifying huge cuts to welfare support for people on low incomes by saying this will incentivise work, but there simply aren’t enough decent jobs available.”
Blame the victim and it will not lead to us questioning who controls power over the policies and runs the patronage networks that have make the wealthy richer is is the real message from Iain Duncan Smith. The Government's spending cuts will have a "catastrophic" effect on British children, Unicef has warned, endangering their future health, education and employment. "We know that the number of children living in poverty in the UK is set to increase due to spending cuts," said David Bull, the executive director of Unicef UK. "One thing is clear: government policies to tackle the deficit must not harm children. There is only one chance at childhood – we cannot see a generation, growing up in austerity, denied the chance to fulfil their potential."
70,000 jobseekers are to be told by the government to do unpaid work for up to 30 hours a week for a month or they could face losing their allowances for months.
A Department for Work and Pensionsn assessment of mandatory work activity programme finds it has 'no impact on the likelihood of being employed. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research Jonathan Portes, said: "This is a complete policy disaster. It is very difficult not to conclude that, whatever your position on the morality of mandatory work programmes like these, the costs of the programme, direct and indirect, are likely to far exceed the benefits...The analysis shows that the programme as currently structured is not working. It has no impact on employment...At at time of austerity, it is very difficult to see the justification for spending millions of pounds on a programme which isn't working."
The number of people working beyond the state pension age in Britain has almost doubled since 1993, due to financial pressures and otther factors according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a report. Britain is facing a "new retirement reality" with the number of people working beyond the state pension age rising by 85 percent in the past 20 years, from 753,000 in 1993 to 1.4 million in 2011.
A member of the National Association of Pension Funds, Darren Philip, stated that it would become normal for older people to keep on working. "The problem comes when people want to retire, but end up stuck at work because they cannot afford to leave. With half the workforce not saving into a pension, this is going to become a painful reality for millions,"
Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, reads from the same script. He will say: “Getting a family into work, supporting strong relationships, getting parents off drugs and out of debt — all this can do more for a child’s well-being than any amount of money in out-of-work benefits...For those who are able to work, work has to be seen as the best route out of poverty. For work is not just about more money — it is transformative. It’s about taking responsibility for yourself and your family.”
Who are the poor? Well, firstly, most have jobs. They are poor because their wages are low and they cannot get full time work. 1.4 million part-timers are looking for more hours to work.
Getting a job is no guarantee of escaping poverty in modern Britain, according to Oxfam. Factors including rising increasing unemployment, lack of reasonably paid jobs, rising living costs, falling incomes and the proposed deep cuts to welfare and public services are buffeting the UK’s most vulnerable citizens. Currently six in every 10 of the 7.9 million working-age adults in poverty are from working households. The charity warned that inequality is growing in the UK, as the gap between the earnings of rich and poor widens. UK average earnings shrunk 4.4 per cent last year, while the incomes of FTSE 100 company directors rose by 49 per cent.
Oxfam’s Director of UK Poverty, Chris Johnes, said: “Despite the Government’s rhetoric about making work pay, having a job is no longer necessarily enough to lift someone out of poverty; more working age adults in poverty now live in working households than in workless ones. The Government is justifying huge cuts to welfare support for people on low incomes by saying this will incentivise work, but there simply aren’t enough decent jobs available.”
Blame the victim and it will not lead to us questioning who controls power over the policies and runs the patronage networks that have make the wealthy richer is is the real message from Iain Duncan Smith. The Government's spending cuts will have a "catastrophic" effect on British children, Unicef has warned, endangering their future health, education and employment. "We know that the number of children living in poverty in the UK is set to increase due to spending cuts," said David Bull, the executive director of Unicef UK. "One thing is clear: government policies to tackle the deficit must not harm children. There is only one chance at childhood – we cannot see a generation, growing up in austerity, denied the chance to fulfil their potential."
70,000 jobseekers are to be told by the government to do unpaid work for up to 30 hours a week for a month or they could face losing their allowances for months.
A Department for Work and Pensionsn assessment of mandatory work activity programme finds it has 'no impact on the likelihood of being employed. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research Jonathan Portes, said: "This is a complete policy disaster. It is very difficult not to conclude that, whatever your position on the morality of mandatory work programmes like these, the costs of the programme, direct and indirect, are likely to far exceed the benefits...The analysis shows that the programme as currently structured is not working. It has no impact on employment...At at time of austerity, it is very difficult to see the justification for spending millions of pounds on a programme which isn't working."
The number of people working beyond the state pension age in Britain has almost doubled since 1993, due to financial pressures and otther factors according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a report. Britain is facing a "new retirement reality" with the number of people working beyond the state pension age rising by 85 percent in the past 20 years, from 753,000 in 1993 to 1.4 million in 2011.
A member of the National Association of Pension Funds, Darren Philip, stated that it would become normal for older people to keep on working. "The problem comes when people want to retire, but end up stuck at work because they cannot afford to leave. With half the workforce not saving into a pension, this is going to become a painful reality for millions,"
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