A third of UK children are living in poverty
A new report by the Resolution Foundation, a leading think-tank that focuses on UK society, reveals that the UK poverty crisis is deepening.
Resolution Foundation Report
The report findings show that the current level of poverty in the UK has not been as poor since 1988, when Margaret Thatcher was in power. The figures show the extent to which Brexit and government austerity measures have seriously decreased living standards in the UK. The income of the poorest third of the working age population, fell by up to £150 due to increased inflation and government cuts to tax credits and benefits. Their new research shows, not only these astonishing figures, but also highlights that government data has been underestimated since 2010.
UN Condemnation
Last month, the UN shocked the UK and the world with the announcement that it would lead a formal investigation into poverty in the UK. Professor Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights and extreme poverty, is to visit the UK this autumn on a fact-finding mission to ascertain how extensive poverty is in the UK. He will also analyse its impact on the human rights and welfare of those individuals that are subject to it. His mission to a more affluent European nation like the UK has not happened since a mission to Ireland in 2011.
On his UK mission Professor Alston said,
“The UK has gone through a period of pretty deep budget cuts, first under the coalition and then the Conservatives, and I am interested to see what the outcome of that has been.”
This is not the first time the UN has expressed concerns over poverty in the UK. In 2016 the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights published a report that confirmed that the UK’s austerity measures and social security reform were in breach of their obligations to human rights.
Amongst the most urgent concerns in 2016 were increased reliance on foodbanks, unemployment rates, the housing crisis, mental health care, and discrimination against migrants.
Child poverty
There are currently 33.4 per cent of children living in the UK in poverty according to 2017-2018 figures. This is an increase of 3 per cent in the last year. The Child Poverty Action Group concluded that 9 children in every school class of 30 are living in poverty of some kind.
Statistics show that child poverty in the UK has a knock-on effect on a child’s welfare and can have long-lasting effects. The short and long-term consequences of child poverty can be seen in the impact of achievement rates at G.C.S.E school exams, health complications and the impact and cost to the broader UK society.
The child poverty figure is calculated by the number of under-16s living in a household that earns less than 60% of the average income, and “relative child poverty may have risen to its highest rate in at least 15 years, despite high levels of employment.”
Deprivation and foodbank use on the rise
Almost four million adults in the UK, or 7 per cent of the population, have now been obliged to seek help from foodbanks or have been forced to skip meals and borrow money in response to deprivation.
Last year, 1,332,952 three-day emergency food supplies were delivered to people across the UK who faced crisis which is an increase of 13 per cent. Increased personal debt and reduction of state benefits were cited as reasons for increased food bank referrals, with 28 per cent coming from those with a low income.
Increase productivity to decrease poverty
According to economists, increasing productivity is the solution to the ongoing crisis. However, an improved economy is driven by certain factors including – certainty about the future, global growth, and investment in higher value jobs and education – factors which in the lead up to and wake of Brexit, seem unattainable.
Moreover, as stressed by the UN, the UK must insist on ensuring that adequate measures are taken to keep living standards firmly at the top of the human rights and civil liberties agenda.