Poverty and inequality in the UK
A staggering 13 million people live in poverty in the UK.
In the UK over 13 million people live in poverty. That’s one in five who have to choose between switching on the heating or buying enough food to put a meal on the table.
Britain is the fifth richest country in the world – so how did this happen? Inequality and an inflexible benefit system make it difficult for families in the UK to break the poverty cycle. Designed in the 1960’s the benefit system is unable to cope with the part-time work and temporary contracts so commonplace today.
Inequality is rife and many don’t get the opportunity to flourish. Take a look at exam results: Children living in poverty here still do far worse at school than wealthier children.
Since 2002 the poorest tenth have become £9 a week poorer (a lot if you can barely get by). While the richest tenth have £94 more a week.
The fact that it’s so hard to escape doesn’t mean the problem is big – it means it’s endemic.
A Robin Hood tax could help us create the society we all wish to live in. We may be in the shadow of recession, but we shouldn’t wait until recovery dawns to fight poverty.
The Robin Hood Tax could raise billions every year to help fight poverty in the UK. It could help end child poverty, reform the welfare system, end fuel poverty and protect frontline services.
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Facts
- Poor people spend more of their income on tax than rich people. The poorest fifth of households pay 11% of their income in VAT, whilst the richest fifth only pay 5%.
- If a couple with two children lose their jobs has to survive on £115 a week below the poverty line.
- The impact of Britain’s high levels of child poverty costs the economy at least £25 billion a year. It would cost £4billion to halve it this year.
- Last winter, over five million households in the UK struggled to heat and power their homes and many had to choose between keeping warm and putting food on the table.
- A child born in the poorer Calton area of Glasgow has a life expectancy of 54, whilst those borne in the more affluent Lenzie area of the same city it is 82.
- Britain is far more unequal than it was in the 1970s. We’re back in the same place we were at the end of the 20th Century.
