BRITAIN POVERTY

According to Gourevitch, the British economy has experienced exponential growth during the previous ten years (Gourevitch 2016, p.57). Only recently, in the three months before to June 2017, has it increased to 0.3%. Additionally, it has succeeded in surpassing France as one of the EU's greatest economies. The rise was ascribed to a number of things, including government programs, a drop in the tax rate, and a stable political environment. The manufacturing and service sectors have witnessed the highest development in the UK's economy, which is expanding gradually overall.  In the last quarter of 2016, the overall financial condition has seen an annual change of 2.3 %. It has shown a steady performance since 2016 and has managed to become the second fastest growing nation in terms of economic growth amongst the G7 countries (Jenkins 2011, p.32). In comparison with the year 1990, the United Kingdom appears to stand at a position that is much more financially stable than in previous years (Gourevitch 2016, p.57).

It is a mostly assumed that the country with a flourishing economy will have fewer people living below the poverty line. The hypothesis is however far from the truth because the positive changes in the economy do not manage to counter or take into account the rising inflation in the country, which directly influences the poorest and leads to worsening their lifestyles (Milbourne 2012, p.393). And while there are a greater number of individuals that are earning good money, it does not necessarily imply that they collectively can live in better lifestyles. Hence, it is important to evaluate the rising inflation; budget cuts in welfare, child poverty and falling employment trends before judging the state of poverty line in the UK (Deeming 2010, p.772). While there may be fewer people in the persistent poverty threshold; the factors like rising inflation, budget cuts in welfare, child poverty, and falling employment trends have made the changes at best very sheer, and the illusion of poverty ending is far from reality. As persistent figures regarding poverty have fallen in the past few years, a different trend has been noticed regarding overall poverty in the Britain, where people have been suffering from worse conditions (Taylor 2013, p.17). The Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests that the recent tax cuts have promised to push overall poverty rates much higher than they have ever been in the past (Irvin 2011, p.169). It has even been estimated that the overall poverty rates will rise by 2 % by the 2020 and 2021. Along with this an explosive change in the rate of child poverty is also expected and can be as high as an alarming 25 % as compared to the current 17 % by the next few years (Lloyd 2015, p.278).

The concept of relative poverty is perhaps the most realistic way of viewing the economic condition of any country (Felstead 2011, p.22). There is a need to understand which households can afford a comfortable average lifestyle and the number of households who are not able to afford the average lifestyle. It also addresses factors such as the difference between two households one where one person earns a certain amount and feeds a family of four as oppose to a household of 10 people where 1 person earns (Dickens 2011, p.12). During poverty assessment, the incomes of these families are equalized, they are adjusted to take into account the factors such as the total number of adults within a particular family as well as the total number of individuals that need to be fed in that particular family (Slater 2014, p.958). The relative poverty measures a house's income based on the median income of that particular year and is hence capable of producing a graph which realistically places a family on a scale where it stands on the socio- economic ladder (Cooper 2015, p.51). Similarly, when examining the poverty falling or rising in a particular country, it is essential to take into accounts all the factors that are mentioned. This form of measure also considers the aspect of the housing cost of a certain population and includes and then on the whole accesses the change in poverty in the country. This is hence the best way to evaluate whether the change in the UK’s overall economic condition has managed to turn around the lives of those at the very bottom of the social ladder.

The UK has a 1 % of the public-sector wage increase that has been placed since 2013, this was however only placed to ensure a stable growth of living standards overtime. However, with the recent squeeze on living standards, the government is considering lifting this ban since it is now alarmed by the wage growth remaining negative over the past years (Joyce 2014, p.87). Another reason which presents a need to lift this cap is the fact that consumer prices in the country have also risen by a sharp 2.6 % in 2016 and the country has seen the constant increase in costs of the basic human needs as well as the transportation, motor fuel, recreation, and culture; (Gazeley 2011, p.62). There is also an increase in costs of electricity, water, fuel gas and other fuels, clothing and shoes as well as food and beverages, household needs like furniture, maintenance, and several other types of equipment (Barnes 2011, p.157). The price growth also extends to money people spend on entertainment such as hotels and restaurants. Property value has also been on a constant rise and there is a marked rise in the consumer prices index, especially the owner occupiers housing (Stokes 2011, p.1053). The fact that consumer prices have raised remarkably goes to further validate the fact that despite the overall growth of the country’s economy, the lives of the average people are not improving and poverty hence as a social problem is not mitigated.

Inflation, when it hits becomes the greatest problem always for people at the bottom of the social ladder. Overall the UK’s inflation rate was at a record high of 2.9 % after 4 years (Lansley 2015, p.96). The inflation has caused the cost of every consumer product go up and has also led to people earning less as companies are now cutting on their salary budgets and using this to make up for the increased costs of raw materials. There has been a reduction in the employment opportunities because the businesses want to save more and has also taken away from one of the major incentives for any economy to be competitive (Monnickendam 2010, p.563). With the rising inflations in the country, even those who have managed to save up their income are now under strain, especially if the individual heavily relies on this income for sustenance (Sobotka 2011, p.277). Hence, when there is a sharp rise in inflation, even with a growing pay bracket, the real pay per person still declines markedly and people who appear to be above the poverty line can still be living in compromised conditions and can be suffering from critical impacts of inflation.

Another issue that has recently been on the rise in Britain is the problem of children who are living below the poverty line. An upwards trend in the kids living below poverty line has been on the increase for the past two years and have continued over in the present year and now there are more kids in Britain that are living under the poverty line than it has ever had in the past (Poverty 2014, 43). There were about 100,000 children falling into poverty between 2015 and 2016 and today about 4 million of child population in the UK are classified as poor. Even though the Child Poverty Act of 2010 set out to achieve a reduction in poverty by a total of 10 % by the year 2020, but the goal has failed by a substantial margin. Forecasters have estimated that the figure is only likely to increase further primarily caused due to the sharp cuts in the working age benefits by the United Kingdom's government (Tyler 2013, p.6). It is also noticeable that more than half of the children from lone parent families are now classified as poor, a number that has recently surged (Shildrick 2012, p.307). The number is also accredited to the tax cuts made for women who have more than two children. Such policies have managed to reverse the healthy trend that the United Kingdom had set on the late 1990s where there was a marked decrease in the child poverty rate (Shildrick 2013, p.291).

The problem of child poverty does not only deprive these kids from attaining good education and miss out on the chance of attaining a brighter future but also impacts them in terms of their health and mental well-being during the most sensitive period of their brought up (Thomas 2010, p.341). Among many problems cited by pediatricians at the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, it was found that parents now cannot afford to take their children to medical appointments, cures for their respiratory illnesses which are further exacerbated by the cold surroundings that the kids are forced to live in (Henkel 2011, p.19). Children are more often not brought up in houses that are overcrowded, cold and ill equipped to provide them with safe and healthy shelters and in the worse cases, but some children have to battle with homelessness from the very beginning (Peel 2011, p.206). Doctors also find it difficult to discharge several children after medical treatment due to the fear that kids will not have the best care at home (Mason 2008, p.47). All the mentioned problems are often considered to be bygones and are rarely countered straight up. Instead, there are still very few organizations addressing the issue and most try to brush these problems under the rug. The problem of children being brought up in poverty promises a bleak future of any country; the more children in poverty today, the more families face poverty as a social barrier in the future. For any economy to grow and be competitive, children need a level playing field to begin with and hence progress. It is then further evidence of the fact that despite the current economic growth, Britain is not better off in terms of mitigating poverty as a social problem and more and more people are now suffering from not being able to properly provide for their families and their children. (Clark 2013, p.503).

As compared to the recession period there has been a sharp decrease in the unemployment rate in the UK. There is a need to know that the reduction was slow and has slowed down even further in the recent months (Burstrom 2010, p.915). The decrease was initially led by part timers and self-employed workers and other people who started work for themselves but now has slowly grown to include full-time employees (Walker 2013, p.143). However, the pace of this unemployment dropping has slowed down even further. While the real wages which dropped about 8 % since the beginning of the financial crisis are now recovering but are doing so very unhurriedly and have not lifted those at the very bottom of the economic ladder out of their misfortune yet (Chase 2015, p.121). There are no signs of recovery despite there have been some false hopes at several instances. The productivity growth that is estimated to be needed for people to have a rising living standard is still declining (Chase 2013, p.745). It is also important to note that to decelerate the increasing child poverty problem families raising their children should have better employment opportunities (Berthoud 2011, p.138). It is also a fact that the one factor which initially lifted Britain out of the predicament of unemployment was the presence of people willing to start personal work and start ups, however when the country moves into a time where it is in economical problem including a falling currency and economic instability, individuals are also less likely to invest in entrepreneurship and startups. A working family is the best way to provide children with safety, dignity and a constant source of income which can manage to bring them out of poverty (Walker 2013, p.218).

A large part of the UK's economy has previously depended on social security welfare of the state or the social security net (Oliver 2017, p.127). However, in recent years the government looks to cut about 12 billion pounds per year from its social security provisions and hence manages to put a considerable number of people UK is already part of a society where more houses being rented than being bought which increases the housing benefit caseload and with a slower earning growth than in the past (Worts 2010, p.425). The alarming statistics suggest for increased expenditure needed on the government part in regard to social security and welfare. The reductions have also included cutting and freezing the working- age benefits which mean that the youth is likely to suffer most as well as children (Rafferty 2012, p.997). There are also more aggressive means-tested program benefits now which suggest that there are few individuals likely to enter paid work now as well as less individuals are likely to let their pays increase as the program serves as an active deterrent. There have also been cuts made to child benefit allowances as well as taxes enforced on disability living allowances, which will inhibit their growth economically (Nolan 2011, p.521).

The reductions made to working-age benefits are also most likely to affect the most relatively low-income families and will also disproportionately affect families with children. The fact is that reducing the social security system will always come with trade-offs which means that while making these cuts the policy makers have to make a conscious decision as to what places are best to make these cuts from (Ruggie 2014, p.257). In the status quo, the reductions have been made in areas which target the most poorest of people and manages to put them in the most compromised positions; a solution would be to replace these and instead if need be take away other luxuries such as the choice of where to live etc (Nolan 2010, p.311). The policy makers need to have a clear aim of what they want from the social security system and hence program their changes in a way which does not actively take away from the primary aim of the system they initially designed (Cooper 2014, p.150). Any cut packages can only work if their combined effects are assessed, and they are made to balance out, for example, low income renting families should simultaneously be affected by housing benefits and tax credits so that they are not thrown further down the economic ladder in one swift change (Li 2012, p.162). Hence another reason why the perception of Britain as a growing economy existing was due to its growing social welfare network, now that this network is being compromised it becomes very difficult to view poverty as a solved problem.

There is also a problem in understanding the trend that the Britain’s economy is now likely to take and the way it can impact the poverty trend in the UK. The aspect requires a look at the country's GDP, employment trends as well as the impact of the EU on its economy and currency value (Baumberg 2012, p.153). The Gross development per head has only recovered recently to its previous pre- recession levels. Forecasters also predict that with the rising inflation, there will be a marked decline in household incomes and the decline will further suppress consumer spending. The decreased spending will, in turn, prevent the constant growth in the economy from progressing at a positive rate as it has been the foremost driver of the progressing economy (Dermott 2014, p.256). The post-Brexit slowdown in the Britain’s economy due to delayed investment plans from businesses is also predicted. As there will also be a demand by markets for a rise in premium or yield for loaning money, it will also mean that filling the deficit will become more expensive for the UK (Grimshaw 2008, p.307). Hence, it will be an incentive to sell more bonds as it is the only way for the country to borrow money and fill the gap between the spending and the receivables. A country where an average man is most likely to spend less, the government is not able to sell more bonds and hence is capable of borrowing less money. Hence the average person having lesser spending power also leaves more room for economic downfall for the entire country. The recent fall in the value of the Sterling also means an expected decrease in investment in industries and places a safe bet on the economy declining in the future. There has also been a concern raised with regards to the productivity that Britain has failed to recover from the recession that hit the country in 2008 (Gregg 2011, p.235). The productivity is a measure of how a unit of input generates much economic output, and while it grew at a stable pace leading up to the recession, it has failed to grow ever since. Hence, the UK's economy may be better off right now as compared to the past. It is not safe to assume the same trend to continue in the upcoming years, and a lot of factors suggest that the overall economy might be growing and in a country where the current economic condition is so uncertain that a future downfall is likely, it is safe to say that the public is not safe economically and that the constant fear of losing jobs and money is enough to put them under the social constraint that poverty brings. (Elsby 2016, p.271).

Today there are fewer people living below the poverty line however it needs to be taken into account that the poverty above line was drawn in a different time. Firstly, the economy and lifestyles adopted in Britain were very different. Secondly, with time and with the rise of food prices and with the cost of power increasing continuously, it is worth assuming that things one could afford in the past with an average income are much more than the ones a person can afford today. While comparing the country of 1990 to that of today, it is true that its economy is on the whole far better off. It has managed to progress much more in terms of having more employment and better facilities and more refined forms of industrial systems; as well as having a currency that is much better off (Gallie 2013, p.8). However, the lifestyle has also improved; people now have the option to avail more opportunities, the general ambiance demands them to spend more and the facilities by virtue of being more efficient and modern are also more expensive. Hence, we need to assess them on a relative scale and then judge how many people are still struggling at the unfortunate bottom of the economic ladder. A lot has changed as compared to 1990 and the change in the state of the current world leaves no possibility of using a fixed poverty line in both times, and all factors need to be taken into account (Rubery 2010, p.84). While it may be noticed that there are fewer people below the predated poverty line, it is very important to let this definition of poverty evolve with time and change the assumption based on the new definition of poverty where perhaps today there are more people worse off than they have ever been in the past. It has been established by Justin Waston who heads the United Kingdom's Oxfam program that there are now more people in poverty than there has been in the past two decades. There are also a million more people in poverty than were at the beginning of this very decade (Waldfogel 2010, p.189). It is safe to assume that in a country where one of the most alarming problems is a growing rate of child poverty, poverty still exists as a glaring social problem.

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