Britain and Poverty: The Embedded Issue of Our Society

It is apparent that with government cuts to the public sector and cuts to the welfare state, poverty is going to become even worse. According to UNICEF statistical findings on child poverty, the UK, USA and Mexico have the worst levels of relative child poverty, the UK hitting the 19.8% mark and in terms of absolute child poverty 29.1% - we fall behind countries such as the USA and Australia in terms of absolute poverty.

A recent study by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has found that absolute child poverty is to increase to 3.1 million and 3.3 million living in relative poverty by 2020, combined this amounts to 6.4 million children living in some kind of poverty. Also the study highlights the issues for the working class claiming 13.7 million living in both relative and absolute poverty by 2020.

The study claims also that the plans for ‘Universal Credit’ will only dampen down a part of the issue and will in fact not be enough. The government still claims that there is no money left to fund the welfare state and public sector which helps all low income families, despite the fact there is over £120 billion worth of taxes being avoided. This amount of money would help finance schools, support low income families, build hospitals, libraries etc. and could be increased through raising corporation tax, closing all UK tax havens and allowing a Robin Hood tax to take effect.

However the government is still making foul swoops at our well-being and our lively-hoods. If they continue to ignore the real issue of poverty then surely we’ll see a lashing back from the working people. The capitalist system is gradually falling apart, now the glossy pictures thrown in our face are starting to turn grey as the implications to the vulnerable working population increase so does the passion of the people to overthrow such a malevolent system. In the next few years the people have the chance to take back what is theirs and put chains to the exploitative system of capitalism.