There are so many aspects of poverty that it would be easy to concentrate on a few specific areas. It would difficult to encapsulate all the perspectives in one article, so I am going to highlight some of them.
Poverty is a common experience so much so that the report ‘Working for Poverty’ by the Living Wage Foundation found that unemployment in UK ‘is becoming increasingly unequal,’ with the rising low-paid unemployment translating to more in-work poverty (‘Commission finds a fifth of UK workforce face in-work poverty,’ People Management, 10 February 2014; ‘Living wage is answer to pay squeeze, says Archbishop John Sentamu,’ www.bbc.co.uk, 10 February 2014). The study found that 420,000 additional people were paid below the living wage – the amount paid that was needed to live a socially acceptable standard of living – in the previous 12 months, considered to be £8.80 in London and £7.45 elsewhere in the UK. More than 50 per cent of those defined as being ‘in poverty’ were actually in work, with 5.24 million workers (21 per cent of the workforce) being paid less than the living wage.
Archbishop John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York and the chair of the Living wage Commission, stated: ‘A living wage allows those that receive it an income that is sufficient to live on. For business, there is no measurement of fairness and decency than paying a living wage to every employee.’
According the Money Advice Centre, more than 40 per cent in five cities are struggling to pay back their debt (‘Nine million in ‘serious’ debt across the UK,’ www.bbc.co.uk, 27 November 2013). The five cities where people had the most struggles were: Hull (43.1%), Nottingham (41.2%), Manchester (41.1%), Knowsley (40.7%) and Liverpool (40.6%). Indeed, nationally, 18 per cent (i.e. 8.8 million people) considered that they had ‘serious’ financial problems.
Furthermore, it was determined that 74 per cent of those struggling with debt were ‘unhappy.’
It has to be appreciated that poverty interacts with many of the protected characteristics, such as age and disability disproportionately. In one report ‘Tackling poverty across all ethnicities in the UK’ (Helen Barnard, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, August 2014), it was stated that poverty is higher among all ethnic minority groups than among the white British people, but there is also variation within and between ethnic groups. The disadvantage of poverty can be evidenced among migrant workers, for example from Eastern Europe, and very high poverty among Gypsy, Traveller and Roma groups. The author commented that ethnicity interacted with gender, class, class, education, disability and geography to affect poverty. Indeed, racism and discrimination were major factors limiting the opportunities for people from ethnic minority groups.
People from ethnic minority groups have a tendency to be in low paid employment, where it is hard to obtain training, development opportunities and promotion so becoming traps where it is difficult to escape.
The effects of poverty can also be seen in the pandemic of inactivity in the poorer parts of England, according to research by UKactive (which represents the leisure industry) (‘Poor areas suffer ‘inactivity pandemic’,’ www.bbc.co.uk, 31 January 2014). The findings showed that thirteen of the fifteen local authorities where people were the most inactive were in the most deprived parts of the country. Between 35 per cent and 40 per cent of adults in those areas were classed as being inactive, that is exercising less than 30 minutes a week, in comparison to 28 per cent nationally.
Where there were high instances of inactivity, early deaths were at their highest, based on the Active People Survey commissioned by Sport England.
In the fifteen most inactive local authorities, there were 342 premature deaths on average per 10,000 people per people per year, in comparison with 242 in those local authorities where people exercised the most. The only two areas where people were inactive but were not deprived were Slough and Dudley.
It has also been established that there was a 20 per cent greater risk of death for unemployed males, compared to their employed counterparts (‘Men twice as likely to suffer poor health due to unemployment,’ People Management, 13 June 2014). Although unemployment can be devastating for both genders, men can be twice as susceptible to mental health problems especially if they had previously unstable work and a lower socioeconomic status. The report ‘Sick of being unemployment: the health issues of out of work men and how to support them’ by The Work Foundation also reported that one in seven men were likely to experience depression within six months of being made redundant.
Many families also face the ignominy of having to receive food parcels (‘Food banks see ‘shocking’ rise in number of users,’ www.bbc.co.uk, 16 April 2014). The Trussell Trust, a food bank charity, reported that it handed out 913,000 food parcels in the previous 12 months compared to the 347,000 parcels the previous year. It was estimated that 83 per cent of the parcels were because benefit payments were temporarily stopped with more than 30 per cent of visits were as a result of a delay in welfare payments and 20 per cent was as a result of low income.
The report ‘The Debt Trap: Exposing the impact of problem debt on children’ by the Children’s Society and StepChange Debt Charity (‘Report reveals debt’s true damage to children, families,’ www.childrensociety.org.uk, 8 May 2014) states that problem debt puts stress on family relationships, damaging children and entraps whole families in the downward spiral of borrowing. It was stated that 2.5 million children live in families with problem debt, with a cumulative amount of £4.8 billion of household bills and loan repayments. A further 5 million are in families that are in serious danger of falling into that situation.
The report itemises some of the effects on children:
· Bullying – children in families with debt problem are more than twice as likely to be unhappy at school and be bullied because they do not have the same things as their friends.
· Worry – 58 per cent of children in families with problem debt say that they worry about their family’s financial situation.
· Family – 47 per cent of children in families with problem debt say that it causes arguments in the family.
· Going without – Nine out of ten families in problem debt say they had to cut back on essentials like food, clothing or heating for their children in order to keep up repayments.
· Early exposure to debt – More than half of children aged 10 to 17 years said they saw advertising for loans ‘often’ or ‘all of the time.’ But only one in five children said that their school had taught them about money management and debt.
Although all households have financial pressures, families with dependent children are more likely to face unexpected bills and could be less able to cope with sudden financial emergencies such as redundancy, reduced hours or illness. It has been found that a third of all families had to borrow money in the previous twelve months in order to pay for essentials for their children. This action often marks the start of the debt trap as credit repayments begin to take up a larger proportion of income and families commence cutting back on essentials.
Archbishop John Sentamu commented: ‘Parents living in poverty face incredibly difficult choices. Who is to come first? Heating your home or putting food on the table? Many choose to go without themselves so they can provide the basics for their children. Parents want to make the best choices for their family, but low wages, expensive childcare and inflexible jobs make this very difficult.
‘When the monthly struggle to pay the bills becomes too much, often families think they have no option but to borrow money to provide the basics for their children. We need to make sure families living in poverty have somewhere to turn other than to usury-lenders.’
Although Jesus reminded us that we will always have the poor among us (Matthew 26: 110, there is the biblical injunction to look after them (e.g. Proverbs 29: 7; Psalm 68: 10; Acts 9: 36; Galatians 2: 10).
We need to ensure that we have an active compassion towards those that God has entrusted us to be His arms around, especially as He stripped Himself of His riches in order to put His arms around us.
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