Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds problem is ‘deeper and more damaging than at any point in the last 30 years’

The UK’s poorest families are getting poorer, with record numbers of people classed as in “very deep poverty” – meaning their annual household incomes fail to cover the cost of food, energy bills and clothing, according to analysis.

Although overall relative poverty levels have flatlined in recent years at about 21% of the population, life for those below the breadline has got materially worse as they try to subsist on incomes many thousands of pounds beneath the poverty threshold.

About 6.8 million people – half of all those in poverty – were in very deep poverty, the highest number and proportion since records began three decades ago, said the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), which carried out the analysis.

Households on the lowest incomes were still experiencing a cost of living crisis four years on, with millions of people forced to go without food, falling behind on household bills and having to borrow to survive, said JRF.

“Poverty in the UK is still not just widespread, it is deeper and more damaging than at any point in the last 30 years,” said Peter Matejic, the JRF’s chief analyst.

  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    3 hours ago

    I’ll put this thought out here for anyone saying “they voted for Brexit”.

    Given the age divide on that vote, most folks who voted for it are enjoying retirement, or are just plain dead.

    Brexit is a root cause, however simple corporate greed and mismanagement are also a huge factor of the UK’s dysfunction. Keep in mind, most of our large companies are owned by the US or countries in Europe (so the profits vanish overseas); a lot of our housing acts as an investment for the wealthy of other nations (driving the cost of living crisis); we’ve also got the “north/south” divide, where all the wealth and investment stats in and around London.

    We’re also exiting over a decade under a party who see poverty as a moral failing, and voted in a party that lacks the balls to make the changes needed to begin reversing these issues.

    So, all things said, there’s a lot more at play than just the act of national self harm that was Brexit.

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
    5·
    6 hours ago

    This is so profoundly sad and unnecessary yet a completely predictable outcome of Thatcher’s and subsequent gov’ts’ neoliberal reforms. I hope Polanski and Co can get the power to start reversing and repairing after Labour thoroughly shits the bed.