Originally Posted by
ragingpup
Kerr: that report concludes that:
"The prospects for solving UK poverty are worrying. The continuing rise in employment is no longer
leading to lower poverty. Changes to benefits and tax credits for working-age families are reducing the
incomes of many of those on low incomes. High housing costs continue to reduce the incomes available
for those in poverty to meet other needs. Inflation is rising and is higher for those on lower incomes
than for better-off groups. This squeeze on living standards is also storing up problems for the future;
a fifth of people on low incomes have ‘problem debt’; most are not building up a pension; the decreasing
proportion of the working-age population buying their own home means that in the future more older
people are likely to rent and have higher housing costs in retirement.
The UK has seen considerable success in improving skills and increasing employment. However, the
majority of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds still do not achieve five good GCSEs and there
is still a group of adults with no or low qualifications who are at an increasing disadvantage in the labour
market. Part-time workers are particularly vulnerable to poverty, with a poverty rate more than twice as
high as full-time workers, and qualifications are far less effective in improving their pay prospects than
for full-time workers.
The impact of poverty on physical and mental health and on relationships within families add to the
disadvantages facing those living on low incomes. Enabling those in poverty to improve their incomes
and reduce their costs, as well as addressing the negative impacts of low incomes, would help to prevent
future poverty".
I guess you can look at this conclusion in two ways: you can focus on the sentence in the middle paragraph about the "considerable success in increasing skills and increasing employment" but the rest of the conclusion reads to me as a damning assessment of the politics you promote.
Anyhow, we could go round the houses again; you could produce X report, I could produce Y report etc. Clearly, both the left and right can produce ample evidence from academics and economists to back up their theories. And I have read and taken on board the reports and arguments you put forward. Only a blind fool would not take counter arguments seriously in my opinion, on both sides.
So where else can we look to get a sense of where we are nationally? Is it fair to look at our own lives and environment we live in?
My work. Working in a publicly funded college in the FE sector, we have faced repeated cuts to funding and have to constantly rethink how we allocate resources to support our students. A new initiative this year is effectively zero hours contracts for learning support staff, who we can now only pay related to when we get funding from the learner's local authority, and if a funded learner drops out, that member of staff is immediately out of work. Some of these guys have families to support. I HATE this situation, it goes against all what I went into higher management to do - but it is forced upon us by successive cuts to funding
My College Bobby: Yes, in this part of London, we have an allocated community policeman attached to our school whom we work with to both protect vulnerable learners and liaise with on the PREVENT strategy. He, as is most bobbies, a quite conservative person but even he is sickened by the repeated cuts to police services that in his opinion and mine, stretch services to the community (crucial PREVENT operations being a key one that directly impact on our ability to prevent terrorist activity),
My Kid's School: Here we now have the sad situation that the next teacher leaving will not be replaced so that we can stay in budget. Same with the next support staff. Instead the kids groups will be merged. The governors are using every initiative to raise funds with regular funding events etc - an extremely inventive school to minimise the damage of successive cuts.
My Mum's Care: My mum is now 80 years old and lives alone. The NHS, when called upon for care do an incredible job as individuals but she faces long waits for her medical procedures and worst of all, her bus service to her house (at the bottom of a hill in Bramley) has been cut meaning she has to get a taxi to the shops/town when she needs to go. Cuts to services means that she can no longer get home visits to help her around the house.
My town/your town: I live in East London and even in the 8 years I have lived here, the rise of homeless people on the streets as I walk through has increased hugely. I walked past 4 just in the 400 yards up to the local shops last night. This is a very recent phenomena. My wife has worked for a national homeless charity for a decade until recently, as well as by brother works for an alcoholics shelter in Rotherham and niece for a Sheffield charity that aims to support rehabilitation of prostitutes - both of these, none of which were hugely political until recently, tell me of cuts to their services and a co-incidental surge in the number of clients as a result of government benefits 'initiatives'. As the Rowntree report is suggesting there is a worrying downturn in poverty in recent years that is showing every sign of getting worse. I haven't had any direct contact with foodbanks but wouldn't you agree that the presence of two food bank centres operating 4 days a week, paid for entirely by voluntary donations with nothing from Government is pretty damning of our culture, if Rotherham is reflective of similar towns?
There are other aspects of my life/environment I could discuss but this post is way too long already!
So to you: is your life affected by such issues with public services?:
- is your work affected by public funding? How are you finding it if so?
- do you have kids in school? How are you finding the school services? Any cuts affect you here?
- do you have elderly family or any family in need of NHS or social care?
- do you have any family affected by zero hours contracts or in need of charity support?
- as you walk down the street in your town, do you notice the increase in homeless people? Do you ever speak to them?
So let's leave out the links to reports - tell me a bit about your experience with the above.
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