Premium Essay

Poverty in the Uk

In:

Submitted By harg2104
Words 1466
Pages 6
Examine the state and extent of poverty in the UK

Absolute poverty measures the number of people living below a certain income threshold or the number of households unable to afford certain basic goods and services. Whereas,

Relative poverty measures the extent to which a household's financial resources falls below an average income threshold for the economy. Although living standards and real incomes have grown because of higher employment and sustained economic growth over recent years, the gains in income and wealth have been unevenly distributed across the population.

Poverty is caused by both a low real national income relative to a to a countries total population size and by inequalities in the distributions of income and wealth. The former leads to absolute poverty for most of a countries inhabitants, whereas the latter causes relative poverty. Discussions surrounding poverty in the United Kingdom tend to be of relative poverty rather than absolute poverty.

The poverty trap affects people on low incomes. It creates a disincentive to look for work or work longer hours because of the effects of the tax and benefits system. For example, a worker might be given the opportunity to earn an extra 50 a week by working ten additional hours. This boost to his/her gross income is reduced by an increase in income tax and national insurance contributions. The individual may also lose some income-related state benefits. The combined effects of this might be to take away over 70% of a rise in income, leaving little in the way of extra net or disposable income.

Disparities in wages and earnings growth are one cause of poverty in the UK. Wages and earnings in some jobs have grown much faster than others. Workers in industries enjoying fast growth and high profits have benefited from above-average increases in pay and earnings. Examples include business services,

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Child Poverty in the Uk

...When you hear the word poverty, the images which we come across may involve people in distant lands. We have seen people who suffer greatly from poverty from the effects of wars, natural disasters, famines and bleak economic situations. it is unimaginable that here in the UK, one of the worst poverty rates since World War 2(bbc poor kids 2012). We often feel impelled to do something to help, or contribute to a cause or campaign aimed at the response to a specific need or crisis, while it is important for us to become aware of a global problem or crisis. Poverty is defined as two meanings;Absolute poverty; when a persons income is so low that they cannot afford the basic essentials for living.Relative poverty where there income is well below the national average of living usually around £15,000 pounds a year(gcse sociology ). Child poverty has become a significant issue in the UK. Its definition itself has become quite controversial. This essay will use the definition set by the government. Labour has defined child poverty as any child living in a household with below 60% of average income after housing. (www.society.guardian.co.uk) It has grown substantially in the 1980s and 1990s. The recent increase in child poverty is particularly a British phenomenon. According to figures, the level of child poverty in the UK is very high . Child poverty affects 3.5 million children in the UK. Inner city areas of London, Manchester, Leicester, and Glasgow are among the worst hit areas...

Words: 2163 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

National Living Wage Analysis

...The national living wage is an obligatory minimum wage paid to workers aged 25 and above in the UK. For example, the current national living wage is £7.50 per hour and will rise to £7.83 per hour in April 2018. The national living wage was introduced in 2015 and came into effect in April 2016. In this piece of writing,one will explore and evaluate the national living wage from an economic perspective with regard to its likely impact on employment. The ways in which the national living wage will have an impact on poverty in the UK will be further examined. As a starting point, it must be emphasised that individuals are increasingly likely to live in societies where most parts fail to earn the necessary income required to sustain an adequate...

Words: 1640 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Economics Poverty Questions

...Poverty Questions 1A) – The number of children living in poverty before housing costs is significantly (about 1.2 million) lower than after housing cost. This is a trend that is kept constant over the decade as the number of children living in poverty before housing costs in 2006 is about 2.8 million and the number after housing costs is 3.8 million, showing that throughout 1996 to 2006 the number of children living in poverty is higher after housing costs. The number of children living in poverty is reduced by 2006, both before and after housing costs as in 1996 the number of children living in poverty before housing costs is 3 million and is reduced to 2.8 million by 2006, whereas the number after housing costs is 4.2 million in 1996 and reduced over the decade. 1B) – Absolute poverty is when an individual or household lives below the poverty line, usually when their income is insufficient for them to afford basic shelter, food, clothing and other necessary commodities needed to live. Relative poverty is when people are poor in comparison to others or compared to the national average. However, relative poverty can vary depending on what it is being compared to, whereas absolute poverty would be the same regardless of the position of others in that society. Absolute poverty shows that individuals may not be able to access basic commodities to suffice their basic needs. Due to various benefit systems being available in the UK, absolute poverty is fairly rare and the data...

Words: 931 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Economics

...Economics The UK Economy and Globalisation WHY COUNTRIES TRADE GLOBALISATION Globalisation | Expansion of world trade in goods and services leading to greater international interdependence | Globalisation usually leads to: * An increase in outsourcing * Large sums of money being transferred from country to country for financing When did Globalisation First Start? There are three major stages of globalisation: Stage | When? | What? | 1 | 1870Increase in international trade | * New technology helped improve transport * Reduced cost of moving goods between countriesEnded in 1920s as countries tried to protect home industries against foreign competition so reduced imports. | 2 | 1945 End of Second World War | * Countries keen to rebuilt economies * Led to rapid expansion in world trade * International Monetary Fund and World Bank founded * Promoted trade and economic cooperation | 3 | Now | * Increase in trade and capital flows between countries * Growth of huge companies | Factors Contributing to Globalisation Improvements in transportation | Cost of transporting goods decreased (eg: due to containerisation) meaning goods can be traded competitively worldwide | Improvements to ICT | Communications are much faster and cheaper – payments can be sent between countries immediately at a low cost. Promotion of products via the internet to a worldwide market also increases world trade. | Rising real living standards |...

Words: 4532 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Major Influences on Child Poverty at Both Local and National Level

...Work and Pensions (DWP), 2004) there has been a significant decline in child poverty in the UK. According to the ‘Households Below Average Income’ survey 1994/95 – 2011/12 (HBAI), carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions, 2012, around 1.1 million children had been brought out of poverty between the period of 1998 - 2012. However, there are still approximately 3.6 million children living in poverty in the UK (HBAI, 2012) which is costing the UK around £25 billion each year (Child Poverty Action Group, CPAG, 2012). Much research has been carried out on child poverty, but as Magadi (2010) points out, very little is known about the extent and reasons as to why children are in severe poverty. This research will set out to discuss the major influences on child poverty at local and national level as well as addressing what measures are being taken to deal with the issues of severe child poverty within a primary setting. Although income is a major contributing factor to poverty, Perry (2002) suggests that it should take in to account a variety of factors due to its multi-dimensional nature (cited in Magadi, 2010, p.298), such as material deprivation. Material deprivation identifies those who are unable to afford things that many people take for granted such as holidays, hobbies and leisure activities or not being able to afford to replace worn out furniture or electrical goods. Measuring poverty on income alone can only lead to an inaccurate calculation of a household’s income...

Words: 1374 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Sociology Poverty and Equality

...Poverty and Social Inequality ‘Inequality remains a significant part of life in contemporary Britain’ Some argue that Britain is the most unequal society in Western Europe, Research conducted by Sutton Trust from 2010 suggests that poverty affects children’s ability to do well in schools, the study indicates that just 45 per cent of children from poorest fifth of families were ready to read daily by the age of three compared to 78 per cent of children from richest fifth of families. This proves that British society is unequal; there are social groups that have access to better standards of living than others (Morning Star Online 2010) In order for Inequality to take place, some people need to have more than others, creating boundaries in society that stop some people from getting equal status despite their work and effort. There are several ways of measuring social class, subjective method simply is based on people’s perception of what social class they should be in. However it is quite vague as some people may be middle class and have a lot of money whereas other might have education, lifestyle and manners of the middle class but are poor. Where objective method takes things into account like occupation, unemployment, income, education and so on therefore it is more reliable way of measuring social class. In order to measure social class effectively, stratification is needed to enable evaluation of inequalities; best way to do it is consider morbidity and mortality factors...

Words: 3565 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Material Deprivation

...of poverty in relative conception. Income poverty means a situation when the threshold of 0.6 of median income is not achieved. The analysis of a broader definition of poverty is based on identification and assessment of material deprivation factors, including: financial stress, housing conditions, availability of consumer durables and basic needs. Data sources are based EU-SILC dataset. Presented analysis is focused on selected EU countries, namely Czech Republic, Finland, France, Spain and United Kingdom. The result identifies the problem areas that cause deprivation symptoms. Key words: EU-SILC, income, material deprivation, poverty 1. INTRODUCTION According to Delors and the EU (Marketing journal, 2011) competitiveness means a country’s ability to provide their citizens with a high and growing standard of living and employment to all who want to work. In the global definition of competitiveness, the three important and irreplaceable pillars are health, quality of education and the labor market, thus pillars dependent on labor force. Marketing and production oriented perceptions of competitiveness are based on the premise that consumers focus on competitive advantages of products in their shopping decision-making. Significant limitation to cosumers is presented by poverty. Poverty represents the inability to participate in society and it has a multidimensional character – economic, human, social, and political. The dominant approach to measuring poverty is based...

Words: 7534 - Pages: 31

Premium Essay

Managing Nonprofit Development Program

...RUNNING HEAD: CARE International (UK) Effective Website Vanansio Samson PA 572 Keller Graduate School of Management Professor James Bridges January 27, 2013 CARE International (UK). Table of Content I. INTRODUCTION---------------------------------------------------------------------------3 II. NAME AND EFFECTIVENESS OF WEBSITES------------------------------------3 III. THE FOUR P’S OF MARKETING-----------------------------------------------------5 IV. FINAL THOUGHTS------------------------------------------------------------------------9 REFERENCES----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 I. Introduction CARE fights poverty and injustice in 87 countries around the world to help the world’s poorest people find routes out of poverty. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives in the aftermath. CARE’s mission is to create lasting change in poor communities and put money where it is needed most. II. Name and Effectiveness of Websites Care International (UK) Website is www.careinternational.org.uk CARE International ranks seventh among 100 non-government organisations, according to the Top 100 NGOs list of the Global Journal. CARE was also globally ranked second among NGOs involved in humanitarian relief work. A) Accountability is about ensuring and improving the quality of their work, by being honest about what has...

Words: 1331 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Economic and Social Challenges in the United Kingdom and Their Impact on Business

...IBUS 750-Exploring Global Business May 31, 2014 Economic and Social Challenges in the United Kingdom and Their Impact on Business. The Great Recession was a crisis that affected economies worldwide. During this time, some countries only experienced small declines in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and declines in international trade while others experienced more severe repercussions such as increased unemployment rates, economic decline, increased poverty populations, higher crime rates, and other calamities. These challenges have caused the demise of businesses, mass employment layoffs, and a decreased ability to take financial risks across the world. Many countries and businesses are continuously struggling to rebuild their wealth and prevent major financial losses from occurring in the future. As a result of this crisis, the United Kingdom faced economic disparities due to a persistently high unemployment rate, stagnant economic growth, and excessive government borrowing. These factors have resulted in social and economic challenges that affect various businesses attributes including reduction in wages, availability of mortgages, talent constraints, global talent acquisition efforts, the need for innovation, global expansion, and an increase in self-employed individuals. The Great Recession had a major impact on the United Kingdom. One of the most detrimental affects of this crisis was the rise in unemployed citizens across the nation. Due to...

Words: 3698 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Tax Havens

...tax havens, others experience losses. This speech supports the assertion that tax havens create more poverty around the world. Globalisation has resulted in countries becoming more interconnected -this interconnectivity has resulted in goods, services and people moving across borders. As a result individuals and company have access to tax havens – a place which has no taxes or low taxes placed on individuals and corporations. There are present in countries where there are weak government regulations, lack of transparency and no need for local presence. Tax havens enable many multinationals to shift profits out of poor countries where the business functions where their profits are untaxed robbing; developing countries are deprived of much needed revenues needed to fight poverty (ActionAid UK, 2013). McNair (2015) reports that between 2010 and 2012 the Democratic Republic of Congo lost over $1.3 billion which is almost twice its health and education budgets joined. As a result government are not able to provide proper healthcare and educational facilities to its people. Similarly Ridgwell (2013) reveals that African countries lose $38 billion a year through tax havens. This money is needed to feed and clothe millions daily. War on Want states that even though the UK loses billions of pounds every year to corporate tax avoiders, its government desists to prevent the UK being used to fuel tax avoidance around the world and further encourages avoiding tax by changing the...

Words: 864 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Mister

...Childhood and education: changes and challenges Dr Nick Lee Institute of Education, University of Warwick February 2009 Summary The first section of this paper will describe the child-centred social investment thesis developed by Esping Andersen (2002). This thesis has been a strong influence on UK government educational and child-related policy over the last decade. Some of the resulting current UK policies will be examined, and their success or failure so far will be explored. It is crucial to note that these policies involve the increasing integration of health, welfare and educational resources in the common purpose of increasing children’s social and cognitive capital. This survey will reveal the key trends and drivers that policy makers are currently responding to as they shape children’s lives. Given that steps taken today may well have effects lasting decades, the guiding social, technical and economic assumptions currently made about the future need to be identified and critically examined. Section Two will set these assumptions in the context of major global trends and signals including issues of demographic change in less and least developed world regions, climate change, energy and food security and financial conditions. The key question here will be whether the bases of current policies address the range of possible futures of yesterday or the range of possible futures of today. Section Three will draw on this material to compose a set of issues that are likely...

Words: 6266 - Pages: 26

Premium Essay

Social Analysis

...strong social infrastructure. British education and health delivery systems are among the best in the world. Government focuses on income inequality and plans to ease in 2020 to eliminate child poverty. The establishment of a single European markets, may be positive, because some young people may migrate to the United Kingdom, to offset the problem of an aging population. Current strengths Current challenges ▪ Strong education system ▪ Healthcare services ▪ Child poverty ▪ Relatively high dependency ratio Future prospects Future risks ▪ System of "managed migration" ▪ Supporting low and middle incomes ▪ Challenges of an aging population ▪ Rising inequality Current strengths: For the healthcare services: British health system is one of the world's most successful social enterprises. This is due to participate in advanced medical infrastructure and the private sector. Public health expenditure on traditional British had been very high, and helped maintain quality and efficiency. Britain, the European Economic Area, all residents, and qualify for NHS treatment and the United Kingdom bilateral medical agreements. The system has established itself as one of the best in the world. Current challenges For the child poverty: Government to develop the elimination of child poverty by 2020, according to the government-defined objectives - Children living in relative income are considered poor if their family income is less than the median national income‖ 60%. According to...

Words: 696 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Outline the Evidence for Social Class Inequality in the Uk Today

...Outline the evidence for social class inequality in the UK today (20) Reasons for why there is social class inequality in the UK today are due to that there is material deprivation, mental health, poverty and education. Working class people have more time off work, have more visits to the doctor and they are more likely to be chronically. This is because they cannot afford a good standard of living such as the buying of food which is fresh and contains lots of nutrients and healthy vitamins which prevent an individual from being ill. This is why the middle class do not take as much time off work and are less likely to become ill. Therefore, a reason for social class inequality is due to material deprivation; meaning that an individual has insufficient physical resources – food, shelter, and clothing – necessary to sustain life either in an absolute sense or relative to some prescribed standard. Social inequality leads to stress and pressure for the individual as they are always trying to better themselves which then leads to mental health problems. Wilkinson found a correlation between the inequality within a country and mental health issues within individuals. This can be used in support for the working class as they are bottom end of social inequality receiving the worst of it and why so many of them become chronically ill. Poverty is something which can be given for evidence for social class inequality. It has been said that overall of ‘breadline poor’ households has increased...

Words: 479 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Sociological Context

...Natalie Gayle 13439 The London College UCK Natalie Gayle ID: 13439 ASSESSOR: Barabara Ocello Introduction I have prepared this report regarding the effects of inequalities in health and social care. It will include the meaning of social construction and stratification in the UK. I will be looking at Current trends in society in the UK as well as cultural values, beliefs and the implications of change in society that effect the health and social care sector. Task 1 LO 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d Social construction is something you might not be aware of. You are somewhat living in segregation depending on what gender, race and class you are. Race, class and gender don’t really mean anything. They only have a meaning because society gives them a meaning. Social construction is how society groups people and how it privileges certain groups over others. For example, you are a woman or a man because society tells you that you are, not because you choose to be. Simple as that. Just like it tells you what race you’re classified as and what social class you belong in. It is all just a social process that makes us differentiate between what’s “normal” and what’s not “normal.” http://oakes.ucsc.edu/academics/Core%20Course/oakes-core-awards-2012/laura-flores.html Social constructionism is characterised by an emphasis on the extent to which society is actively and creatively produced by human beings. The world is portrayed as made or invented – rather than as given or taken for...

Words: 3187 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Assess Sociological Explanations of Ethnic Differences in Educational Achievement

...mistake to think of ethnic groups as always being defined by physical features such as skin colour. Although many ethnic minority groups in the UK are non-white, this is not applicable to all groups. According to Crystal (03), well over 100 languages are in routine use in the UK. Today, children from minority backgrounds make about21% of the pupils in English schools. The level of achievement of different ethnic groups varies greatly in Great Britain. This may be due to factors such as home background, class, language and in-school factors. Recent studies highlight the effects of racism. It is believed that ethnicity influences such factors, leading to an impact upon their education. When ethnic minority students do underachieve in education this may be explained partly by social class disadvantages and partly by educational disadvantages related specifically to their ethnicity. Although members of ethnic minorities are found throughout the UK class structure, Afro-Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin students are especially likely to be found in the lower sections of the working class and to experience poverty. Social theorists working with a relative definition of poverty usually define poverty to exist where individuals are receiving an income below 60% of the median income in the UK as a whole and relative poverty in the UK can be shown to be widespread; approximately 20% of Whites, 25%...

Words: 1510 - Pages: 7