Our poverty shame in the world’s fifth richest economy

Calling for an end to child poverty
at UNISON Conference 2012

If asked what the most important political issue is in the UK today most people, I am guessing, would say Brexit.

But not me. In my view the most pressing issue – and the one that as a country and a society that we should be most ashamed of – is the extent of poverty in this, the world’s fifth richest economy.

When the Tories introduced their austerity agenda in 2010 it was with the mantra – “We are all in this together.”

Right from the start those of us on the political left and the trade unions knew that would never be the case. We knew that those who would be most affected would be the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. We knew that the rich would be fine. And very soon it became apparent that not only would the rich easily weather the storm, they would amass to themselves even greater wealth. 

Inequality in the UK has grown massively since the financial crash. Research by the Equalities Trust shows that the 1,000 richest people in the UK now have total wealth of £724bn, which is an increase of £274bn in the past five years and an increase of £66bn in the past year alone. As the trade unions predicted, the rich have done very well indeed. The poor have paid the price of the bankers’ profligacy. 

And not just the poor. Income inequality has also increased dramatically as many workers have felt the impact of job cuts and squeezed wages through pay freezes and pay caps. Analysis by the Equalities Trust of the latest CEO pay in the FTSE 100 shows that, on average, they take home 265 times more than a minimum wage worker each year and 137 times more than an average wage worker.

We’ve seen the rise of a low wage economy where workers struggle to make ends meet on zero hours contracts, part time work, insecure work and bogus self-employment. For many years, anti-poverty groups pointed to work as a route out of poverty. Well no more. Over two thirds of children growing up in poverty are in working households, dependent on top-up benefits and increasingly food banks to survive and feed their children.

Those dependent wholly on benefits often fare even worse with the scandal of Universal Credit. Extremely flawed disability assessments drive vulnerable disabled people to food banks and sometimes suicide.

So how have the Tory government got away with this? Where is the public outcry? The anger that in the 21^st century, in such a rich country, so many children are growing up in poverty?  It’s no surprise that this current Tory government don’t give a Fosters 4X. It is made up primarily of wealthy individuals. In 2010 when austerity was first implemented, 23 out of 29 Tory and LibDem cabinet members were millionaires!

But what about the rest of us? What has happened to our compassion? Our concern for those less fortunate, our understanding that there but for the grace of God go we? The values that created the welfare state and the NHS, to ensure that no one would go without if they fell on hard times? The social contract by which we agreed to pay into the system in tax and national insurance to enable those in need to have a financial safety net, access to public services and health care?

In large part it is down to the process by which the Tory’s, aided and abetted by the media, have demonised the poor and divided to rule. We saw it happen right before our eyes. 

The poor were portrayed as feckless and workshy and set against their neighbours who went out to work every day for not much more money. No one saw the answer to be increased wages. No, the way to deal with this was to cut benefits and to treat benefits claimants with disrespect if not downright derision. Even those with disabilities were not immune. New assessments were brought out which assumed that disabled people were “at it” and assessed many of them as “fit for work.” Even stories of terminally ill people being deemed fit for work could not change the narrative as everyone knew someone who fiddled the benefits system.

That billions more have been lost to this economy in tax avoidance than was ever lost in benefits fraud has little impact on the public’s consciousness. Probably because no one lived next door to a tax avoider!

Now we are in a situation where UN Rapporteur, Sir Philip Alston, has written an excoriating assessment of poverty in the UK, reaching the conclusion – already highlighted by trade unions like my own - that poverty is a political choice. 

He writes, “Austerity could easily have spared the poor, if the political will had existed to do so. Resources were available to the Treasury at the last budget that could have transformed the situation of millions of people living in poverty, but the political choice was made to fund tax cuts for the wealthy instead.”

His report is a shameful indictment on this, the world’s fifth richest economy, and shames us all. Yet, when it was debated in the House of Commons hosted by Labour’s Shadow Minister for Children, Emma Lewell-Buck MP, only 14 MPs turned up. Fourteen – one for each million people living in poverty in this country! Contrast that to the standing room only in the Brexit debates! I despair!

Of course Brexit is relevant because in the wrong hands, it will make things even worse for workers and for the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us. It’s just not the place to start. First of all we must decide what kind of country we want to be. If we want to recover our compassion and our care for those less fortunate than ourselves then we need a government who shares these principles and who will use them to underpin its policies on Brexit and everything else.