Yesterday 03:47 AM
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/...ecord-high
NEWS: Britain's “poorest are getting poorer” as severe poverty reaches a record high, a new study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has found. Campaigners warned that progress on tackling poverty could stall after April unless the government follows up its decision to scrap the two-child benefit cap with further action.
The limit will be lifted that month after the measure was confirmed in the autumn Budget. The foundation said the removal of the cap would lead to around 400,000 fewer children living in poverty compared with the year before.
According to the government, the change, combined with measures in its child poverty strategy published in December, will lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2029-30. But the JRF said its analysis suggested that without additional changes, poverty levels would remain “stuck at a high level.”
It cited Office for Budget Responsibility projections indicating that the headline poverty rate will remain broadly unchanged through to the end of the decade. The charity said 6.8 million people were living in very deep poverty in the year to March 2024, meaning incomes after housing costs were below 40 per cent of the national average.
This figure accounted for almost half of everyone in poverty and was the highest level recorded since the mid-1990s. More than one in five people, around 14.2 million, were living in poverty overall, the report said.
Poverty has “hardened,” with those affected now further below the poverty line on average than in previous decades. Work does not guarantee security, with most working-age adults in poverty living in households where someone was in work.
JRF chief analyst Peter Matejic said: “Poverty in the UK is still not just widespread, it is deeper and more damaging than at any point in the last 30 years. When nearly half of the people in poverty are living far below the poverty line, that is a warning sign that the welfare system is failing to protect people from harm. There can be no national renewal if deep poverty remains close to record levels.”
Responding to the figures, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Scrapping the two-child limit was vital and will make a real difference for many families. “But a toxic combination of insecure work and rising living costs is locking too many households into poverty, even when people are doing everything right.”
NEWS: Britain's “poorest are getting poorer” as severe poverty reaches a record high, a new study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has found. Campaigners warned that progress on tackling poverty could stall after April unless the government follows up its decision to scrap the two-child benefit cap with further action.
The limit will be lifted that month after the measure was confirmed in the autumn Budget. The foundation said the removal of the cap would lead to around 400,000 fewer children living in poverty compared with the year before.
According to the government, the change, combined with measures in its child poverty strategy published in December, will lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2029-30. But the JRF said its analysis suggested that without additional changes, poverty levels would remain “stuck at a high level.”
It cited Office for Budget Responsibility projections indicating that the headline poverty rate will remain broadly unchanged through to the end of the decade. The charity said 6.8 million people were living in very deep poverty in the year to March 2024, meaning incomes after housing costs were below 40 per cent of the national average.
This figure accounted for almost half of everyone in poverty and was the highest level recorded since the mid-1990s. More than one in five people, around 14.2 million, were living in poverty overall, the report said.
Poverty has “hardened,” with those affected now further below the poverty line on average than in previous decades. Work does not guarantee security, with most working-age adults in poverty living in households where someone was in work.
JRF chief analyst Peter Matejic said: “Poverty in the UK is still not just widespread, it is deeper and more damaging than at any point in the last 30 years. When nearly half of the people in poverty are living far below the poverty line, that is a warning sign that the welfare system is failing to protect people from harm. There can be no national renewal if deep poverty remains close to record levels.”
Responding to the figures, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Scrapping the two-child limit was vital and will make a real difference for many families. “But a toxic combination of insecure work and rising living costs is locking too many households into poverty, even when people are doing everything right.”