UK Poverty and the Policy Surrounding It - Essay Example

? UK Poverty and the Policy Surrounding It Task Introduction In Poverty and Social Work, written by Greg Mantle and Alock Blackworth discusses on of poverty in the England. It traces the history of poverty in the country and ways it has affected individual lives. In his book, Understanding Poverty, Alock also discusses poverty and ways in which the British government has made efforts in reducing it by initiating strategies that improve citizen’s lives. Mantle and Blackworth recommend that social workers should be directly involved in reducing and fighting poverty in the society. The content further highlights the conceptual, policy and realistic links among Community-Oriented Social Work (COSW), and poverty (Greg & Dave, 2010, 2380-2397). The core approach that the article emphasizes on is that practitioners should maintain close contact with society. Alock majorly reviews poverty and emphasizes on the causes and possible solutions for it. The book incorporates researches and policies done since 1997 when the England held labour election (Alcock, 2006). The author goes further to include the new material in UK policy development. The information analyzed on poverty in UK, is to incorporate concepts of social exclusion, inclusion, poverty and discrimination. The concepts have relations and bear relevance to social work since they affect poverty. The following information is also discussed; risks of poverty, the current legislation on poverty, the law and policy of both current and historical reference to poverty. Other content analyzed is the three discourses, the development of the welfare state; abject and relative discourse; the social divisions of poverty, gender, age disability; and policy framework surrounding poverty. The British administration has taken a step to eliminate poverty in the country such as child poverty, and social exclusion (From Absolute Poverty to Social Exclusion, 2002, 5-23). The article analyzes the progress that has been commenced by the government and citizens of the country to fight poverty. A brief history of Poverty in the UK The history of poverty in the UK is traced at the time when Elizabeth was the queen of England. For a number of people, perception of life was to work hard to make their lives comfortable. In the 16th century, the numbers of people ascended that extend pressure economically, which further implied that a majority of the population could not meet their needs. The standard of living went high, vagrancy became even worse and this had definite effects for the entire nation especially the children who failed to attend school, and were not featured in the contemporary society (Ridge, 2004, 13). The Elizabethan regime was obliged to tackle this problem and introduced a number of Acts, which recognized the welfare of the poor was now a societal task and responsibility and that everyone had a task to do. In this regard, the poor Laws were continually developing from time to time and made a framework that existed for years. People can only speculate what daily life was for those who were poor and the effect it had to on our villages and cities. There were several factors why poverty increased and during the regime of Elizabeth I, the number of people ascended by one million people. This rise was specifically due to a rise in fertility and a decrease in the death rate and thus meant that the nation’s resources were to be shared by a greater number of citizens. A further inflict of this problem was the rise in prices. In the regime of Henry VIII, he defocused the coinage, which implied that the percentage of silver and gold in the coins was lowered. The Elizabeth’s government took procedures to tackle this by substituting all the defocused coins by new ones thus putting back the nation’s currency to its normal state. This move was taken to solve the crisis of inflation in the initial years of Elizabethan regime. Poverty was later tackled by the introduction of poor laws that tried to reduce the number of poor individuals. The laws failed to be effective, hence new laws were introduced that many UK citizens embraced. They believed it would assist in eradicating poverty in the country. What is Poverty? There is no common definition of poverty although poverty is standardized as resources deprivation. Poverty can be defined as the condition of being poor, lacking cash or ways of subsistence (Haughton & Khandker, 2009, 1). Increasingly, the idea of fundamental subsistence is gauged by the availability of services of infrastructure like clean water, solid-waste collection and sanitation. Poverty is also gauged according to the level of development of a country, societal norms and ethics (Lusted, 2010, 6). Due to the diversities the level of poverty may vary from nation to nation hence, there is no poverty line uniformity. The measure of poverty line is characterized by the cash level the society or government believes is required for an individual to live at the lowest level of subsistence. The denoting of the poverty line has political connotations. They are developed at given time intervals and points, and are often adjusted, presumably each year. The query of who to include and what to include remains vital since a poverty line discloses what a nation does or even does not act in tackling the requirements of the poor people. Who Is At The Risk Of Poverty and Why In UK, individuals having low schooling level and those born in deprived societies face the risk of poverty. A failing global financial system, food and energy uncertainty, divergence, global climate alterations, weakening ecosystems, intense poverty and the risk of pandemics are amid the issues taxing progress towards social welfare and financial stability in numerous developing nations. The individuals having low education lack the chance of getting high paid jobs and depend only on the temporarily low paying jobs. Individuals coming from various places that are affected by diversity risks linked with dangers such as humid cyclones, deluges, earthquakes, and dearth. They live a difficult and miserable life since an individual can lose everything such and lack enough the basic needs. Pensions, such as aging and survivors’ benefits, are calculated as proceeds and not as social transmissions. This gauge inspects the theoretical non-subsistence of social transmissions. The persistent risk of poverty rate demonstrates the percentage of the inhabitants residing in homes wherever the disposable proceeds were beneath the at-risk-of-poverty margin for the present year. Abject Poverty Abject poverty is a condition where individuals of a state live a miserable life lacking human requirements such as food, shelter, housing education and medical attention. It is extreme poverty in which parents and caretakers fail to take their children to school because they lack enough money. According to the findings, United Kingdom is facing the risks of abject poverty and the government is taking precautions measures to make the lives of her citizens live happily. Food banks in UK and globally, have assisted citizens living in abject poverty by donating money and basic needs. They have visited and encouraged organizations worldwide to give out a helping hand to such people. Recently, the food banks halted their operation of donating and helping Britain’s citizen living in such conditions. They insisted that the government was not doing enough in making the lives of her citizens better and encouraged the government to begin their plans of helping the citizens. Many individuals who have benefited through the food banks have given positive feedbacks and thanked the organization. It is found out that charitable food handouts is the common method in which Britain’s citizens living in abject poverty have benefited. The institutions such as food banks are institutionalized to provide exceptional services to citizens living in similar conditions. The Trussel Trust in UK urges the local community to initiate a process of assisting neighbours living in abject poverty to reduce the numbers and make their lives nourishing. Relative Poverty Relative poverty can be referred to as the lowest level of earnings that an individual can survive within a day. It is also referred as a poverty threshold, or poverty line. It varies from one country to another depending on the economic stability of the state. In UK, relative poverty is generated according to the societal economic ability and strength (Great Britain, 2007, 6). Poverty involves individuals earning small amounts of salary that fails to meet all their daily requirements and needs. The standards of living for individuals under relative poverty change as the economy of the society increases. Therefore, poverty varies according to the condition of the place where an individual is living now. For a case in point, many Britain’s citizens living under relative poverty have a good live compared to other citizens from different states. Relative poverty is a measure of poverty, which defines how individuals rate of lacking the basics needs in the society. In UK, IFS has predicted that approximately 400 000 children would be fall into relative poverty in coming years. Another aspect of poverty that can be measured and is closely related to the relative poverty is known as absolute poverty. The grading is based on a person’s yearly income that he/she earns, and it always aims at the discrimination of individuals rather than material hardship. Conversely, absolute poverty refers to situations when an individual spends all income that he/she gets in buying food, clothing and paying rent for houses. The Poor Law The poor lows existed in England and Wales and were referred to as system of poor relief that were initiated and codified in the 1587-98. It involved collection of money from the rich families and communities and then distributing them to the underprivileged in the society. The poor laws existed until the end of the WW2 and were later replaced by the modern welfare state. Other terms of the law, is the English poor law and are believed to be initiated and formed in the year 1536. At this time, legislation was formed to deal with poverty and improve the lives of individuals. Laws such as Tudor laws solved the inconvenience that was caused by the beggars and vagrants in the community. The history of the poor laws are divided into two periods; the Old Poor Law and the New Poor law (Joanne & Lorraine, 2009, 157-164),. The Old Poor law is existed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth while the New Poor was passed in 1834 after the parliament approved it. There are factors that caused the downfall and in effectiveness of the poor laws and they include; introduction of the liberal welfare reforms, and assistance that came from organizations such as trade unions and the friendly societies welfares. Another reason is the piecemeal reforms that proved to be effective than the poor law system. The National Assistance Act 1948 caused the poor law system to be officially banned from the state laws, though there were some elements of the law that remained until 1967. The new poor law became popular among the people, both common citizens and the government in United Kingdom. The reasons behind it were that, it would reduce the cost used to look after and maintain the poor in the society. They hoped that the poor law would assist the government and society to take the beggars and street children from the street. The new law would encourage the poor to take responsibility and initiative to improve their lives and make it exceptionally comfortable (Daly, 2009, 522-523). The laws ensured the under privileged in the society were well fed and given clothes in order for the look to appear presentable in the society. Their children would be taken to school and their fees paid, if only the workhouse paupers would work for several hours. The new law also faced criticism from individuals such as Richard Oastler. He termed the new law as ‘prisons for the poor’. The parish in UK also played a crucial role in maintaining the good state of the underprivileged individuals in the society. The Development of the Welfare State in UK The origin of the welfare state is traced in the Victorian era and the willingness of individuals in providing for the underprivileged in the society. The state of welfare was influenced by the aspiration of providing exceptional healthcare and pensions for the poor. Germany influenced Britain coming up of social policies in the late 19 century. Historically, the Bismarck of Germany created a strong socialist party that provided pension and health services to the poor and underprivileged. The UK borrowed the same idea to form a welfare state that considered the poor in the country by assisting them financially. The current welfare state development was perceived to improve the social services to the UK citizens. The development of the welfare state was affected and influenced by the following factors; improving technology, and varying social and economic factors. Discourses on Poverty 1. Redistributive discourse (RED) The RED discourse also referred to redistributive discourse highlights visions as poverty as a result from methodical barring of persons from the financial and the societal. The mistakes of the community involved encountering the monetary and social wants of its populace. It falls short to do so by assisting in insufficient payment, lack of service and learning chances, and squat wages. Poverty is an equal reason and consequences of persons being barred from participation. The rejoinders to poverty should be focused on matters of nationality and the fundamental civil rights that ought to be bestowed under such nationality. 2. Social Integrationist (SID) SID discourse in Britain is interpreted within documents and policy instruments compared to the silver’s solidarity paradigm, which is believed to evaluate it. It is believed to represent European influences to poverty and social exclusion. The social exclusion is commonly referred to as the structural, cultural and moral tie that connects a person to the society. The main aspect that determines the SID is the social integration of individuals through employment that pays, and one manages to get an income. The core aspect of inclusion is the involvement of in the labour market. Levitus argues that SID discourse can limit an individual from fully participating socially and prevent exclusion. It is believed that the discourse does not value the work that does not pay (Carlisle, 2001, 267-281). 3. Moral Underclass (MUD) Moral underclass discourse is majorly focused and emphasizes on the moral and cultural causes of poverty, and puts much concern on the dependency of some in the state benefits. The discourse depicts some similarities with viewpoint of the “under class”. The perception was greatly expressed in New Right works. MUD places blames on social exclusion on the people and organizations that are expelled. For example in UK, the poor lifestyle and poor economy of a single family is granted on the mother or the father who has chosen to live and raise the children alone. Another example is the immigrants who come from other countries globally to United Kingdom and fail to learn the language of the host. For this reason, they are blamed for low economic status and racism. The Underclass, the Extent of Poverty, Distribution of Poverty, Changing Patterns of Poverty The underclass in the society are associated the following characteristics; teenage pregnancy, the dependency on welfare organizations for support and money, criminal activities because of poverty. The individuals practice high truancy rate in all the fields that they involve in such as learning environment. Most of the individuals lack jobs and are permanently unemployed. The youths and adults involve themselves with drugs and a substantial number of them are addicts. In the behaviour characteristics, the underclass in UK, the individuals falling under the underclass have some characters different from the other people. The underclass are affected by poverty and is the characterized by living a deprived and miserable life. The distribution and changing patterns of poverty differ in the UK according to the place and period. In the country, the rate of poverty has been reducing and the citizens are able to live a much better live. The changing patterns are significantly influenced by the condition of the economy; when the economy is stable, the rate of poverty reduces. The extent of poverty widens when the economy of the country becomes low and things in the market are expensive. The changing patterns of in labour and economic opportunity affect the rate of poverty in the UK. It becomes hard for the analyst to give substantial statistics on poverty of a given place. Therefore, the changing patterns of poverty should be maintained at a rate that favours individuals in the society. What creates poverty? There are numerous reasons that cause poverty in London though the country is one of the strongest economies globally. The approximate numbers of individuals who are underprivileged in the country are about thirteen million citizens. The majority of people who live unsatisfied life are women and children. According to study, it is approximated that the city of London has the highest proportion of citizens living in poverty. The following are reasons that creates a state of poverty in UK; low income, child poverty, existence of older people who lack the energy to look after themselves, lack of employment, deprived education and health facilities. Other reason are; disability among the citizens, poor housing, and ethnic minorities among the citizens in the country. In elaborating the points, the country faces inequality in wages and earnings among the citizens. The employees, with suitable skills and qualifications have the advantage over those are not skilled and are uneducated. They have a bigger chance of being employed in good jobs with decent salaries. Those that do not have the appropriate skills continue to suffer and earn small wages that cannot sustain them especially the women (Meier, 1994, 465-517). UK government is trying to reduce the effects caused by the following reasons; de-industrialization that leads to service sector jobs that fail pay high wages. The sector jobs under the public increase their wages with a small percentage, hence does not bring out positive influence on the citizens. There are many part jobs and temporary that come up but pay low wages to the workers. The money is not enough for a person make his/her family comfortable. Most companies and working station only look out for highly skilled personnel to their companies. The underprivileged lacking proper education and skills fail to obtain highly paying jobs. In the UK, pension and other benefits are index linked, which means that in the course of the inflation, the wages fail to rise therefore, making life difficult and expensive. One of the major causes of poverty in the UK is the unemployment, since the individuals rely majorly on benefits given by the government. The government enforces high taxes to the citizens, hence this makes the individuals receive a small amount of wages after the tax has been deducted. Inheritance, which is still a common way of life, also plays a role in creating poverty in the United Kingdom. The wealthy citizens pass over their riches to the family members, hence remains intact along the family line. Structure and Agency, Ideologies of Poverty The structure and agency of poverty in UK is a topic discussed in most national and international debates and conferences. The structure and agency of poverty plays a role in defining and reducing poverty. The strategies that citizens in UK use involve include orientation to the current and future events. Orientation makes it possible for faster and clear decision-making and provides a context for reflection and deliberation. The strategy of tenants is to be friendly and considerate towards the proprietors, although they making it conditional. This means that they property owners should be also understanding and considerate towards the tenants in order to be respected. Agents are known to negotiate and ensure that there is proper and decent behaviour, hence creating and changing the norms of lifestyle (Meier, 1994). The structure-agency terms makes the underprivileged individuals have intimate relationship with others hence, making life comfortable. Many individuals have different ideologies on poverty according to a person’s perspective on the topic. Citizens in UK ideologies are that poverty should be eliminated since it makes live hard and difficult. Social Exclusion There are clusters of individuals in all communities who are thoroughly underprivileged as they are discriminated. This discrimination happens in public organizations for instance legal and education systems, healthcare, in the community and in the household. The discriminated people usually end up barred from society, political participation and the economy. The probability of them being poor is very high. They are expected to be deprived access to assets, services and income. These individuals undergo social exclusion and the reduction of poverty become difficult as a result. The strategies of poverty reduction usually fail to get in touch with the socially excluded clusters unless they are purposely intended to do so. Social Divisions of Poverty, Gender, Age, Disability The breach between the wealthy and the deprived of the globe is widening. In the UK, the economic breach between the rich and the deprived is not reducing and the disparities in health between the first and the fifth social classes are increasing. It is vital to recognize that inequality and poverty are very closely connected. The individuals who reside in deprived societies, where there is under development in the physical and social structure usually encounter poor health and the effects are higher deaths for the low classed people. The income inequality effects usually spread out into community causing frustration and stress, which further enhances crime rates, violence and homicide. The connection between life expectancy and income inequality is gradually vanishing and is no longer extensively accepted (ADFID Social Paper, 2005, 1). The poor are exposed to hazardous environments that many at times have unrewarding and stressful work, who lack wants and life amenities since they are not part of the mainstream community and hence are deprived of support and information. Individuals in minor socio-economic classes are subjected to extra stressors and with minimal resources to tackle them are victimized doubly just by virtue of circumstance. The connection between mortality and occupational rank of people is eminent from the statistics in the 1970s, which stipulated that the mortality of men aged 24-64 years doubled those of men in class V as opposed to class I and even triple by early 1990s. (Vijaya & Femi, 2004, 2) Policy framework surrounding poverty A possible productive manner of organizing a scrutiny of the connections between poverty and movements is to discover nodes between the two frameworks (state market civil communal frameworks and asset-based livelihood frameworks). Movements usually employed in development: the state market civil communal frameworks focuses on organizational domains that govern poverty and the asset-based livelihoods frameworks focuses on poverty but with a widened notion of the phrase. This approach’s merit is not only that it gives a filter for systematizing and describing an analysis of the positions of link between poverty and livelihoods, but also it connects an indication on movements as opposed to other frameworks that have been employed to reflect through the connection between human agency , economy and poverty (Bebbington, 2009, 7) Poverty, Inequality and Inclusion A new research by members of the Centre for Analysis of Social exclusion (SE) based at the London School of Economics has examined the proof on the effect of policies on poverty, SE and inequality as from 1997 when the labour party was elected. The administration has regarded SE and poverty grimly making a concise distinction from previous governments. The vast range of issues facing the UK in 1990s had been known as has been their inter-connected and multi-faced form. SE and poverty have been the topic of a number of the administration’s high scaled, especially to eradicate and completely remove ‘child poverty and to strategize that in the period of one or two decades no person is seriously deprived by where they reside. Where enterprises have been particularly appraised, the repercussions have frequently been of positive nature, even though not at all times very huge. Generally, the effect of tax-benefit change has been further progressive than a substitute strategy of earnings connecting all benefits stages without transformation. However, there are clusters that are left out (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2005, 1). The poverty law policy A number of laws were legislated by Parliament in 1950s to 1960s. Each Act had a different weight and always reflected the existing climate. The Act of 1957, for instance, had harsher rules for vagrants and beggars in reaction to the economic calamity of the 1590s. The undeserving poor especially those who depicted signs of altering their habits, were given unsympathetic measures. The Act of 1953 reassured the policy of beating those beggars who were physically upright. Subsequent Acts depicted that on persisting vagabonds ought be burned in the ear, sent to jail or even killed. The rule of ear boring and killing stayed in place up to 1953. The Act of 1957 demanded that each Town to present a jail for these clusters, which was sustained by, taxes. Beggars arrested committing crime were penalized and sent back to their residential parish. In 1572, the state poor law tax was introduced which was a vital stride forward in identifying that the poor were a responsibility of the society. Citizens were asked to sustain the poor and anyone evading the tax was penalized. In the 1956 Act, every town was supposed to give work to the unemployed, delivering raw materials like wool for them to labour on. In this manner, the deprived were realistic assistance while also fulfilling an essential responsibility for the community. The Act of 1957 went ahead in proclaiming that an administrator be selected for every parish distinctively to oversee the requirements of the poor. A number of big towns started their own initiatives to help tackle the issue. Norwich, for instance, was at that moment the biggest city in the periphery of London and as a result had a crisis with poverty. A census was accumulated in 1570, which detailed the age, status, name of each inhabitant with reason of giving a summary of the population, and assess the context of the problem. Bibliography ADFID Social Paper, (2005), Reducing Poverty by Tackling Social Exclusion. Retrieved on January 13, 2012 from: Alcock, P., (2006), Understanding poverty, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. Bebbington, A., (2009), Poverty Reduction and Social Movements. A Framework with Cases, Retrieved on January 13, 2012 from: Carlisle, S. (2001), Inequalities in health: contested explanations, shifting discourses and Ambiguous policies, Critical Public Health, Vol., 1(3), Pp, 267-281. Daly, M., E., (2009), The making of the Irish Poor Law 1815-43, Irish Studies Review, Vol., 17(4), Pp, 522-523. From Absolute Poverty to Social Exclusion, (2002), Sport & Social Exclusion, Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books SocINDEX, Pp, 5-23. Great Britain, (2007), Poverty in Scotland, London, TSO. Greg, M., and Dave, B., (2010), Poverty and social work, British Journal of Social Work, Vol. 40(8), ISSN: 0045-3102, Pp, 2380-2397. Haughton, J., and Khandker, S, (2009), Handbook on poverty and inequality, Washington, DC, World bank. Joanne, M., and Lorraine, S. (2009), Abandoned babies and absent policies, Health Policy, Vol., 93, Pp, 157-164. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, (2005), Policies towards poverty, inequality and exclusion Retrieved on January 12, 2012 from: Read More