Society, Diversity and Planning - Coursework Example

?Report Poverty is a social problem that touches many people and has been made worse by factors like the recession, which increase unemployment and underemployment, age groups like early young adults who cannot find careers, and by families that suffer from chronic poverty because their genes have caused them to repeat their parent's mistakes. This report will define some of the challenges that need to be looked at and demonstrate items like the measurement of poverty and the results from statistical research. Introduction There are four main parts related to poverty that need to be addressed. Poverty resulting from the recession; the broader view of poverty; statistical analysis and measurements of poverty; and some underlying trends illustrating Labour market trends within and outside government agencies. Under the category of low income, there are inequalities and children that are poor. In the recession, there is unemployment and worklessness which brings debt. For children and young adults, there is their economic situation, their education which does not provide enough income, their health, and their exclusion. Under the categories of communities and services, there are aspects of neighborhood and access to services. In an earlier report, the government adopted social exclusion ideology and Mr Blair took a pledge to end childhood poverty. Social exclusion has two features that poverty does not. First, income levels or material consumption does not measure it; second, we do not know who or what is doing the excluding. A National strategy for neighborhood renewal with 18 Policy Action Teams examining subjects ranging from jobs and skills to allow access to shops and financial services had developed. Measuring social exclusion was next and a look at the gap between low and average income was necessary in order to begin this aspect. An example of this is that those who are extremely poor do not have bank accounts. Those who were disadvantaged usually ranked lower on scales of income, class, and ethnicity. If disadvantages are to be dealt with properly, policies need to be put in place. It is unlikely however that solving one part of the problem will solve the entire thing. In order for governments to work better with poverty, they needed to create policies that state that it is not a the result of failing, it is more of a result of social problems. Unfortunately, this does not tell us who or what is the cause of poverty, it just lays the blame on someone other than the poor person. Welfare has now become the cure for all for every poverty ailment. What should the Coalition government do in order to resolve poverty as a social issue. Children who are poor do not know whether they will live or die. Now we take a look at measuring poverty. Household income is the basis of all research in this area. One household is a dwelling with one or two adults and either with or without dependent children. Sometimes they include children that have become adults so there are more than two adults in the household. If the household's income falls at 60% of the median income, that household is living in poverty. Two people can have the same standard of living as one person with less than double the income. Two adults can have the same standard of living as one adult if they have 172% of the income of one adult. Two adults with two children must have 240% of the income of one adult to have the same standard of living. In measuring poverty, why is income the main factor that determines that someone is living in poverty. A minimum income standard was developed in order to measure an income that would allow for a healthy amount of goods and services for a consumer to buy. A minimum income for an individual or group can be found on the following website: http://www.minimumincomestandard.org/downloads/2010_launch/MIS_report_2010.pdf. Income measurements depend on family types (single adult, lone parent with one child, couple with two, single pensioner along with the many other types of families out there). The minimum standard income is roughly 72% of the median income which is 12% more than the poverty threshold. Absolute vs Relative Poverty Absolute poverty income levels are the 60% margin at the poverty threshold. Absolute poverty is roughly 4/5th the threshold of relative poverty. Child poverty had its greatest years in the six year span of 1998 to 2004. Whatever the governments were able to do at that point, they were doing a great job, and we can improve today's level of poverty for children if we can do what they did at that time. Unfortunately, recent periods lead to an increase in child poverty. Long term poverty results A five and ten year mark for a future look at dealing with poverty is important in order to see where improvements or worse situations exist. Delays in research to detemining results of poverty based surveys plus the time it takes for a new government to use new strategies means that two more years are needed for the next six year category. If in the five or ten year span we see major changes, there is a change that is measurable however a default of no change means that the changes were not obvious enough. Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2010 13 Table 3: The five- and ten-year record of change in the statistics Subject Theme Description No. 2009 Change 98/99 to 09/10 Change 04/05 to 09/10 Low income Child poverty Children in low income (%) 2 Better Worse Children in low income (fixed year threshold) (%) Better Worse Children in low-income working families (%) 6 Worse Worse Children needing tax credits to escape low income 7 Worse Worse Low income and inequality Working-age adults in low income (%) 2 Worse Worse Pensioners in low income (%) 2 Better Better People in very low income 1 Worse Worse Social wage (excess value of benefits in kind to bottom fifth as a percentage of the value for those on average income) 4 Worse No change Ratio of richest fifth median income to overall median 3 No change Worse Ratio of overall median to poorest fifth median income 3 Worse Worse The recession Unemployment and worklessness Working age adults officially unemployed (%) 9 Worse Worse Underemployment 9 Worse Worse Young adult unemployment (%) 10 Worse Worse Debt Mortgage repossessions 14 Worse Worse Child and young adult well-being Economic circumstances Children in workless households 17 Better Worse Education 11-year-olds not attaining Level 4 KS2 19 Better Better 16-year-olds not obtaining 5 GCSEs 20 Better Better Looked-after children not attaining 5 GCSEs 21 Better Better Lacking qualifications at age 19 22 Better Better Health Rate of infant mortality 24 Better Better Under-age conceptions 25 Better Better Exclusion 16-19-year-olds not in education, employment or training 26 Worse Worse Children permanently excluded 27 Better Better Under 18s cautioned/guilty of an indictable offence 28 Better Better Adult well-being Economic circumstances Workless households 29 No change No change Disabled working-age adults lacking work 30 Better No change Lone parents lacking work 30 Better Better Adults receiving out-of-work benefits 31 – Worse Older people lacking private income 32 Better No change Low-paid employees 33 Better No change Gap between low-paid women and male median pay 34 Better No change Gap between low-paid men and male median pay 34 No change No change Ill-health At risk of mental illness 35 Better Better Limiting long-term illness (%) 36 No change No change Deaths before the age of 65 37 Better Better Crime Victims of crime 38 Better Better Fear of crime 39 Better Better Communities and services Neighbourhoods Participation in volunteering and other civic activities 40 – Worse Ability to affect decisions 41 – No change Polarisation – social renters 42 No change No change Homelessness 43 Better Better Satisfaction with local areas 44 No change No change Access to services Older people helped to live at home 45 Worse Worse Take-up of means-tested benefits for older people 46 Worse Worse Low-income households without a bank account 47 Better Better Low-income households without contents insurance 48 No change No change Low-income households without internet connection at home Note: the better and worse comments refer to the changes from 98/99 to 09/10 and 04/05 to 09/10, respectively. Some of the main trends that exist are as follows: 1 A contradiction exists between in-work and out-of-work child poverty statistics. Another factor to consider in these situational forms of poverty are the amounts of tax credits that children require. 2 The rising rate of unemployment among young adults under the age of 25 is up from 14% in 1997 to about 20% in 2010. 3 A rise in deep poverty is a concern where people are falling below 40% of the median salary. Fourty four percent of the population fall in this category. 4 A reduction in pensioner poverty. 5 The decline in the amounts of 11 year olds failing to reach minimum standards in English and maths which has reduced poverty in the long run because youth that are educated early on become educated adults. 6 The decline of older people receiving care at home. 7 and finally a decline in people worrying about falling victim to a crime. There are pros and cons meshed within all of these seven factors to consider in poverty. Doing nothing to resolve this is not an option. Recession Effects The latest recession began in the first quarter of 2008 and finished in the third quarter of 2009. This recession illustrated much loss in employment and an increase in poverty. The worst of the recession will be contained in the 2009/10 statistics which have not come out as of yet. The reduction in income occurred for the families who did not work more often than for the families who had some form of employment. In-work child poverty is still quite high unfortunately. Pensioners have received more success to be granted freedom from poverty than most children and young adults. Not surprising is the fact that adults increased their poverty levels. Debt and Repossessions Debt and home repossession increased during the recession. Repossession has been eased for the time being yet it is not a problem that has been completely solved as of yet. It is expected that poverty will increase yet again based on the fact that many more people are unemployed and underemployed in the recession. Poverty has hit an all time high and looking at poverty in the future will be bleak as it is assumed that poverty will continue at the same level or get worse. Conclusion The challenges we face now are quite difficult to overcome. Poverty on all counts is not looking so good and there needs to be plans in place to recover from the current recession and prevent any further recessions to occur. We must tackle the issues of poverty one by one starting with in-work poverty. One way to resolve in work poverty is by putting it in the same category as out-of-work poverty. Debates and resolutions for poverty will fail unless this occurs. In-work poverty is the same for those with children and without. The next challenge to overcome is defeating poverty among children in workless households. We must tweak the government's strategies to resolve the current poverty issues because the amount of poverty that exists is as low as it was in 1984; this is not a good outcome especially since we would like to see improvements in our time and for our future. Deep poverty is the next challenge and in order to face this, we must change past policies so that people never reach such an all time low in their salaries. More effort to improve this type of poverty will lead to much better results in society and create a better life for those experiencing deep poverty. Another success story is the education of the lowest attaining school children. These children usually have severely poor grades however they have improved quite a bit and this will lead to much healthier adulthood and future jobs for these children. Another challenge that we face is providing young adults with more than the minimum set of qualifications. Young adults are usually not able to meet the standards required to attend work and be in a long term career. A huge challenge is that young adults do not do well in finding careers and this is quite a chronic problem that leads to a poor economy and in turn, more poverty. There are issues in underemployment, health, and access to essential services that also need to be addressed. Read More