It is a crying shame that politicians and the government are engrossed in big issues like Brexit, climate change, terrorism and rise in crime whilst ignoring the main issue of increasing poverty level in UK. The JRF report has painted a damning picture of poverty in UK where a shocking four million people in Britain live in poverty despite having jobs. Campaigners said in-work poverty was rising faster than the overall employment rate, in a major blow for the Government and its championing of work as a route out of deprivation. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said one in five people living in the UK was in poverty - amounting to 14.3 million people overall - with half a million more kids living below the breadline since 2011/12.
The JRF annual state of the nation report said the soaring in-work poverty rates had been driven “almost entirely” by an increase among working parents. “Rising employment alone is not delivering lower poverty. Rather, in-work poverty is increasing faster than employment,” it said. “Many workers are caught in the middle of a series of moving currents; stuck in low-paid work, with little chance of progression, subject to high housing costs and using a weakening social security system.” The JRF said 8.2 million working-age adults live in poverty, alongside 4.1 million children and 1.9 million pensioners. Eight million people live in poverty in families where at least one person is in work, it added. It argued pay boosts from the higher minimum wage were being outweighed by changes to benefits, including shortfalls in housing benefits, and rising social rents. In the UK a household is in relative poverty if its income is below 60% of average household incomes. The U.K. has been one of the wealthiest countries on the planet for centuries. Despite this, however, poverty remains a serious issue in the country. An estimated 13.5 million people live below the poverty line. Last year, one in five people struggled to put food on their table, with more than half a million reliant on food banks in order to feed themselves and their families. The question remains why is the primary causes of poverty in the U.K. not being tackled head on. Poverty leads to homelessness, crime, drug addiction, and heavy demand on food banks. This is a wakeup call for the government to put its house in order and change the policies that are creating poverty. It does not befit a rich country like UK having poverty amidst its plenty.
Baldev Sharma
Rayners Lane, Harrow
