77% increase as more people on low incomes seek support
The amount paid out in crisis grants to people in need increased by more than three quarters in the early stages of lockdown, latest figures show.
The Scottish Welfare Fund awarded £5.2 million in crisis grants between April and June 2020, up 77 per cent on the same period last year.
The number of crisis grants rose by 63 per cent over the quarter, peaking in April when twice as many were awarded than in April 2019.
The most common reason given by applicants, covering 45 per cent of cases, was that they had exhausted their usual income and benefits.
Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “These latest figures demonstrate that we were right to ensure our Scottish Welfare Fund was increased – just one of many actions taken to ensure there is additional financial support to people coping with the economic impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19).
“The leading reason people apply for emergency help is that their benefits or other income has been spent.
“While the Scottish Government works to improve provision for children and families facing poverty, we continue to have to spend money to protect the most vulnerable in our communities from UK benefit cuts.
“We are introducing the Scottish Child Payment to tackle child poverty head on, opening for applications next month, with the first payments to start from February 2021. Together with the Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, this will provide over £5,200 of financial support for families by the time their first child turns six – and more than £4,900 for second and subsequent children.”
Scottish Welfare Fund Statistics: Update to 30 June 2020 can be found here.
Families’ needs are escalating while support services are diminishing, new research reveals
Children’s charities call on Scottish Government to invest in family support without delay
Years of austerity have had a harrowing impact on vulnerable families in Scotland with some now facing destitution, reveals NSPCC Scotland and Barnardo’s Scotland research published today.
The report, Challenges from the Frontline – Revisited, highlights the devastating impact of the rollout of welfare reform on children and their families and the effects of local government funding cuts on the support available to them.
The research, a snapshot of life before Covid-19, describes rising need in the face of lessening resource, with some families struggling to obtain adequate food, secure housing and basic necessities. Despite long-standing commitment by the Scottish Government to early intervention and parenting support, the research found that too many families were coming to services already at crisis point.
Service managers told researchers that welfare reform had financially punished a whole section of the population.
One said: “…because so many of our families are on universal credit, that does not allow them to have a standard of living that meets the needs of those adults and children within the household. It simply does not.”
Another said: “It’s the poverty and disadvantage that we see now. It was always there, but it’s certainly exacerbated by the welfare reform over the past few years. The rise of foodbanks here is massive. Families use them on a regular basis and you can see that, families who come to us and are really struggling.”
NSPCC Scotland and Barnardo’s Scotland are now calling on the Scottish Government to press ahead, as a matter of urgency, with the Independent Care Review’s vision of making intensive family support available to all who need it.
The review’s Promise report sets out a blueprint of how this should be done.
The children’s charities also say the Scottish Government must articulate a clear vision for family income in Scotland, and set out how – within the current levers available – it will ensure that all families have enough money to live with dignity.
Today’s report compares findings from research carried out with family support services in Scotland in 2013 and 2019. It concludes that in the intervening period severe hardship has affected parents’ mental health and family relationships, so that those now being referred have more complex difficulties and greater needs.
This is amid a landscape of local authorities and other public bodies continuing to face financial challenges. The research found evidence of family support services closing or being offered on a far more limited basis than had been the case in 2013.
Matt Forde, NSPCC Scotland head of service, said: “Our research reveals that families were facing destitution, isolation and mental health struggles before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
“We found that against a backdrop of years of austerity there was escalating need for help from families who were struggling with more complex problems, being met with less support than before.
“We know that adverse and traumatic experiences in childhood can have a profound impact on a person’s life.
“And it is crucial this unacceptable situation, now compounded by the Covid-19 crisis, is addressed with a matter of urgency.”
Martin Crewe, Director of Barnardo’s Scotland, said: “Supporting vulnerable families mitigates social inequality and improves children’s life opportunities.
“The Coronavirus crisis provides a huge opportunity to make meaningful, sustainable, transformative change. We need to harness the desire to do things differently, to reach out to families with a strengthened social safety net to prevent longer term difficulties developing in young people’s lives.
“The Independent Care Review’s Promise has given us a blueprint for family support and we must deliver on this without delay.”
The City of Edinburgh Council Leader Adam McVey has pledged that eradicating poverty will stay at the heart of the Council’s future actions and policies.
The report identifies seven key areas of action to end poverty in Edinburgh by the end of this decade, including Edinburgh becoming a living wage city, tackling the housing crisis and closing the educational attainment gap.
It marks the end of the work of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission as it hands over to End Poverty Edinburgh – a new independent group of residents with first-hand experience of living on a low income and civic allies drawn from business, public services and the third sector.
As a group, they will work to raise awareness and understanding of poverty, influence decisions, and hold the city to account for ending poverty in Edinburgh.
Adam McVey, Council Leader, said: “On behalf of the Council, I would like to extend my thanks to those in the Edinburgh Poverty Commission and End Poverty Edinburgh for the time, dedication and research that has gone into creating this report.
“I’m also extremely grateful to those who shared their personal experiences and those of their families in helping get to the root of the issues. Tackling poverty in our city is one of our key priorities as a Council – helping those who need it, making resources available for people and, ultimately, doing everything we can to eradicate it in Edinburgh.
“We know that the pandemic has been incredibly challenging for those who were experiencing or at risk of poverty in our city.
“The Commission has pulled no punches and got to the heart of the issues – while there is no doubt that the pandemic has exacerbated the situation, poverty in Edinburgh is a crisis that goes beyond one cause and we cannot ignore it.
“If we’re to make progress on the scale required, it needs a concentrated effort from us, our partners and allied organisations, local business and residents acting as one Team Edinburgh.
“The seven areas of action give our City clear and defined areas for us to focus on and we appreciate that they are interlinked and support each other.
“Our 2050 Edinburgh City Vision is of a fair city where all residents share in its success and have a good level of wellbeing and life experience and we have been working with the Commission throughout our continued response to the pandemic to make that vision a reality, ensuring that as we rebuild our city we do it with our most vulnerable in mind.
“The educational attainment gap is a big priority for us and has been for a long while now. We were making good progress in this area before the pandemic but we’re mindful that the disruption to the school term earlier this year has widened that gap. Now we need to work with our schools and educational partners to double down on that work and ensure the progress continues to be made.
“We also know that access to and cost of housing is a central issue in Edinburgh and needs a focused and strategic approach in collaboration with the Scottish Government to deliver the new homes needed to make significant impact.
“We’ve already made progress around short term lets and will be ready to act quickly when regulations come into effect. We’re proud that Council houses being built right now are some of the best homes being built in the City but there is still work to be done to make sure we can provide good quality and affordable homes for everyone in our city who need them.
“The Edinburgh Poverty Commission has spent over two years listening to the voices of the people of Edinburgh and the reality faced by many of our residents, with COVID making it harder than ever for too many.
“That’s why the Council and the city has to come together to tackle both the cause and consequences of poverty. It will take time and won’t be easy, but we will ensure it remains at the heart of our policies as we drive the change needed across the Capital in partnership.”
While over 200 people attended the online launch of the report, local mum Ashey was picking her children up from school.
She had just left her youngest at her Nan’s as it was raining and the bairn has a cold. Nan had also given Ashley £5 to tide her over until partner gets paid on Friday. He has two cleaning jobs but he expects to be paid off at any time as one big office contract has just been terminated and the other is also looking vulnerable.
Ashley will just have time to pick up the kids, go to Farmfoods, collect the bairn then make the tea for her partner getting home, as he has to be back out for his evening cleaning job.
Tomorrow … well, we will face that tomorrow.
Surviving, not living. There are families just like Ashley’s all over Edinburgh, one of the richest cities in the world.
Edinburgh Poverty Commission set out a ten year ‘horizon’ for eradicating poverty in the capital. For all the ‘horizons’ and the council’s ‘visions’, you wonder where Ashley and her family will be in ten years time, when for now just gettting by, getting through from one day to the next is the ever-present challenge.
Today, the Edinburgh Poverty Commission launches it’s final report, A Just Capital: Actions to End Poverty in Edinburgh.
In this blog, EPC Chair Dr Jim McCormick (below) sets out the Commission’s journey, what we have learned along the way, and what we are calling for next:
Our Call to Action in Edinburgh comes after almost two years of conversations across the city: with people experiencing poverty, the community anchors that support them, keyworkers, employers, councillors, public service officials, housing providers and taxi drivers.
This rich process has uncovered new insights on how poverty is experienced in Scotland’s capital city – some arising directly from the COVID-19 pandemic – but more stemming from long-established struggles. We set out much of what we had learned about the immediate impact of Covid in our interim report in May.
Since then, we have maintained a clear focus on addressing the root causes of poverty as well as mitigating the consequences. We have discovered common ground among people with different experiences and in different sectors: that poverty in Edinburgh is real, damaging and costly – but also that, despite the powerful currents that threaten to drive us further off course, there is enough determination in the city to embrace the twin challenges of solving poverty and reducing carbon emissions over the next decade.
We have identified six broad areas for action and one cultural challenge that should serve as a lens through which each action should be approached.
Our first proposition is that Edinburgh will only succeed in creating a prosperous city without poverty if it creates the conditions for good jobs, genuinely affordable housing, income security and meaningful opportunities that drive justice and boost prospects – above all, in the city’s schools.
In addition, a much sharper focus on connections across the city is needed – via digital participation, cheaper transport and creating neighbourhoods that work. These actions combined will flow through to reduced harm to people’s physical and mental health. Emergency food support should not become locked in as a fourth emergency service but serve as a gateway to other support that will ease isolation and build human connection and kindness where it has been lacking.
The common challenge running through all of our work is a cultural one. We call on the City Council and its partners in all sectors to shift towards a relationship-based way of working which gets alongside people and communities in a holistic way.
The experience of poverty is too often one of stigma, being assessed, referred and passed from pillar to post – a separate service and multiple workers for each need. This radical move would see public servants authorised to put poverty prevention at the heart of their day-to-day work.
It will mean new relationships with citizens, employees and third sector partners. It will take visible leadership and longer-term financial commitment. There are green shoots in Edinburgh and examples from beyond Scotland demonstrating how better outcomes for families can be achieved and fewer resources locked into multiple complex systems.
We call this ‘the right support in the places we live and work’ to signal the importance of local access to multiple forms of support under one roof and within walking or pram-pushing distance – for example money advice and family support offered in nurseries, schools, GP surgeries and libraries.
None of these challenges are new. The City Council and its partners can point to significant investment in recent years to turn the tide on poverty. But we are not persuaded that actions have been consistent, at scale, sustained over time or have poverty reduction as part of their purpose.
While Edinburgh has many of the powers to go further, we are not persuaded that it can deliver on the required social housing expansion without a new funding deal with the Scottish Government.
This is urgently needed to boost investment and to help unlock the supply of land at a reasonable price. Almost one in three families in Edinburgh in poverty are pulled below the water line solely due to their housing costs.
That compares with one in eight households in poverty across Scotland. Solving the city’s housing crisis will go a long way to delivering on affordable housing ambitions for the country as a whole.
At the same time, the UK Government has a critical role in creating an income lifeline for families in and out of work, by maintaining the currently temporary increase in Universal Credit and Local Housing Allowance – both of which have become more significant as a result of damage to Edinburgh’s job market since March.
This Call to Action is not a list of recommendations or a menu of options. Reflecting our lives, each area is connected to the others. A plan for housing makes little sense in isolation from a plan for schools. Developing skills for employment will fall short if basic needs for secure, decent housing and food are neglected.
Nor is the ten-year horizon a get-out clause. We have worked on this basis because Scotland has committed to a significant cut in child poverty by 2030 and because many of the city’s existing plans run to the same schedule. We call on the City Council and the wider Edinburgh Partnership to set out its initial response by Christmas, as part of a first year of planning and early implementation.
And we are leaving a legacy through a new independent network, End Poverty Edinburgh. Led by Commission member Zoe Ferguson and our partners at Poverty Alliance, this brings together a core group of residents with first-hand experience of living on a low income and allies who want to be part of shaping the solutions.
Inspired by a similar approach in Edmonton (Alberta), they will stress test this report, challenge and add their own ideas, work with city partners to achieve progress but also hold the city to account on its response.
I want to thank everyone who contributed to our work in the hard graft of sharing painful stories, completing surveys and through organised and chance conversations.
Each member of the Commission gave their time, energy and ideas generously and for longer than originally asked. The quotes in this report reflect only a little of their brilliant contributions. Our work – and this report – was only possible due to the skill, care and patience brought by our secretariat team of Chris Adams, Nicola Elliott, Ciaran McDonald, and Gareth Dixon.
We have listened, been shocked and inspired – I hope we have done justice to what we have learned. Our Call to Action sets out something beyond hope: it is an expectation of what the city can and must now achieve.
Dr Jim McCormick, Chair of Edinburgh Poverty Commission
Read the final report here and the supplementary data and evidence paper here.
Research highlights England’s local councils with the lowest social mobility opportunities
The effect of deprivation in dozens of English local authorities is now so persistent that some families face being locked into disadvantage for generations unless the right action is taken, a new report shows today.
In the most detailed study of regional social mobility ever conducted in the UK, the report from the Social Mobility Commission identifies local councils with the worst and the best social mobility in England.
In the “coldest spots” those from disadvantaged backgrounds, entitled to free school meals, have little chance of making a better life for themselves or their children. They also earn much less than their more affluent peers.
These areas, which range across England, include:
Chiltern
Bradford
Thanet
Bolton
Wolverhampton
Kingston-upon-Hull
Fenland
Mansfield
Walsall
Gateshead
Kirklees
St Helens
Dudley
Bolton
Wigan
Individuals aged 28 from disadvantaged families in these councils earn on average just over half the amount of those from similar backgrounds in the most mobile areas. They also earn much less than those of the same age from more affluent families living nearby.
Steven Cooper, interim co-chair of the commission said: “These findings are very challenging. They tell a story of deep unfairness, determined by where you grow up. It is not a story of north versus south or urban versus rural; this is a story of local areas side by side with vastly different outcomes for the disadvantaged sons growing up there.“
Areas with high social mobility, where those from poorer backgrounds earn more and the pay gap with those from affluent families is smaller include:
The results, covering around 320 local councils in England and 800,000 young adults, show a postcode lottery for disadvantaged people. In areas with high social mobility, disadvantaged young adults earn twice as much as those with similar backgrounds in areas with low social mobility – on average, over £20,000 compared with under £10,000. Annual earnings from this group range from £6,900 (Chiltern) to £24,600 (Uttlesford).
Councils with the lowest earnings for disadvantaged individuals include:
Bradford
Hyndburn
Gateshead
Thanet
But they also include:
West Devon
Sheffield
Malvern Hills
Kensington and Chelsea.
Those with the highest earnings include:
Broxbourne
East Hertfordshire
Forest Heath
Havering
Uttlesford
Wokingham
But those from poor backgrounds also face unfairness on their doorstep. Pay gaps between the most and least deprived individuals in local authorities with the poorest social mobility are 2.5 times higher than in areas of high social mobility.
Education, often blamed for social mobility differences, is only part of the answer. In areas with high social mobility, gaps in educational achievement account for almost the entire pay difference between the most and least advantaged sons. On average it accounts for 80% of the difference.
However, in local authorities where social mobility is low it is much harder to escape deprivation. In such areas, up to 33% of the pay gap between the highest and lowest earners is down to non-education factors, like local labour markets and family background.
Disadvantaged workers are restricted by factors including limited social networks (fewer internships); inability to move to more prosperous areas; limited or no financial support from family; less resilience to economic turbulence due to previous crisis such as 2008 financial crash and less developed soft skills.
The commission is now urging regional and community leaders to use the findings to help draw up tailored, sustained, local programmes to boost social mobility, building on the approach in some Opportunity Areas.
The commission will also ask the government to extend its current Opportunity Areas programme – which gives support to 12 councils – to include several more authorities identified as the areas with the most entrenched disadvantage.
Professor Lindsey Macmillan, Director of CEPEO at UCL and Research Fellow at IFS said: “This new evidence highlights the need for a joined up-approach across government, third sector organisations, and employers.
“The education system alone cannot tackle this postcode lottery – a strategy that considers the entire life experience, from birth through to adulthood, is crucial to ensuring fairer life chances for all.”
Laura van der Erve, Research Economist at IFS and co-author of the report, said: “Not only do children from disadvantaged backgrounds have considerably lower school attainment and lower adult earnings than their peers from more affluent backgrounds, we also find large differences in the outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds across the country.
“This highlights that children’s opportunities in England are still defined by both the family they were born into and the area they grew up in.”
Key findings
Social mobility in England is a postcode lottery, with large differences across areas in both the adult pay of disadvantaged adults, and the size of the pay gap for those from deprived families, relative to those from affluent families.
Disadvantaged young adults in areas with high social mobility can earn twice as much as their counterparts in areas where it is low – over £20,000 compared with under £10,000
Pay gaps between deprived and affluent young adults in areas with low social mobility are 2.5 times larger than those in areas with high social mobility.
In areas of low social mobility, up to 33% of the pay gap is driven by family background and local market factors, over and beyond educational achievement.
Characteristics of the coldest spots: fewer professional and managerial occupations; fewer outstanding schools; higher levels of deprivation and moderate population density.
The Social Mobility Commission is an independent advisory non-departmental public body established under the Life Chances Act 2010 as modified by the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. It has a duty to assess progress in improving social mobility in the UK and to promote social mobility in England.
Lower-income households are twice as likely as high-income households to have increased their use of consumer credit during the crisis, leaving them particularly exposed to the ongoing economic crisis, according to a major new Resolution Foundation report published today.
Rainy Days, published in partnership with the Standard Life Foundation, examines the distribution of wealth across Britain in the run-up to the crisis, and how the crisis is having different impacts on the balance sheets of richer and poorer households.
The report shows that those most at risk in the crisis have the weakest private savings safety net to fall back on, while the crisis itself is exposing Britain’s wealth gaps, and the ability of low-wealth households to weather the economic storm.
A typical worker in a shut-down sector of the economy – and therefore most at risk of unemployment – had average savings of just £1,900, far less than the average savings (£4,700) of someone who has been able to work from home during the crisis.
These workers are most worried about making ends meet if they lost their main income source for a month (24 per cent are worried, compared to 17 per cent among those working from home).
Looking at the impact of the crisis on households across the income distribution, the report finds that lower-income households are far more likely to run down their savings and turn to high-interest credit.
Among the second poorest fifth of households, one-in-three (32 per cent) are saving less than usual, compared to one-in-six (17 per cent) who have increased their savings. One in four of these households have increased their use of consumer credit – most commonly credit cards which carry high interest rates – during the crisis.
In contrast, just one-in-eight high-income households have increased their use of consumer credit, while one-in-three (34 per cent) are seeing their savings increase significantly as their spending falls.
These very different experiences of this crisis reflect both how focused its negative effects have been on lower-income families, and the big wealth gaps across Britain before the crisis struck.
The report shows that the wealth gap between the richest and poorest tenth of households grew by more than £370,000 (in real terms) between 2006-08 and 2016-18 to reach £1.4million.
Wealth gaps across the country have also grown, with London and the South East accounting for 38 per cent of all wealth in 2016-18, up from 32 per cent in 2006-08.
The Foundation adds that while wealth inequality has not increased in recent years, it remains almost twice as high as income inequality.
Rainy days shows that the lack of a private savings safety net, for so many low-income households in particular, could pose significant challenges as the Government phases out its emergency support for family incomes.
It highlights the need for both a stronger social security safety net, and for policy makers to do more to tackle very large wealth gaps once Britain emerges from the crisis.
George Bangham, Economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Pre-coronavirus Britain was marked by soaring wealth and damaging wealth gaps between households.
“These wealth divides have been exposed by the crisis. While higher-income households have built up their savings, many lower-income households have run theirs down and had to turn to high-interest credit.
“The impact of coronavirus crisis will be with families for many years to come. That’s why it’s important for the Government to both strengthen the social security safety net via Universal Credit, and assist more low and middle-income households in building up their private safety nets by boosting their savings.”
Mubin Haq, CEO at the Standard Life Foundation, said: “Today’s report highlights how vital wealth is to our living standards. Not only does it help reduce costs, especially housing, but savings and assets provide an important buffer when income drops.
“Millions are now facing an income drop and in need of that buffer. Savings are not a nice to have, they are a must have.
“The growing jobs crisis and the tapering of furlough and self-employment support brings this to the fore. People who lose their jobs or have a drop in their income, and have been unable to build up their savings, are being pushed into borrowing. Those on the lowest incomes will have less choice and more likely to be reliant on high-cost credit.
“The Government needs to move quickly to make further reforms to boost incomes so people are protected from the financial crisis created by the pandemic. In the longer term the Government needs to think of ways everyone has a greater share of the wealth generated in the UK.”
As at 14 June, 4,070 deaths have been registered in Scotland where the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was mentioned on the death certificate, according to statistics published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) yesterday.
Between 8th and 14th June, 70 deaths relating to COVID-19 have been registered, a decrease of 19 from the previous week, 1st to 7th June. This is the seventh weekly reduction in a row of deaths involving COVID-19.
To place these statistics in context, the total number of deaths registered in Scotland from 8th to 14th June was 1,032, 3% higher than the average number of deaths registered in the same week over the last five years.
This week, NRS have produced additional analysis based on deprivation, pre-existing conditions and occupation, the key findings show:
People in the most deprived areas were 2.1 times more likely to die with COVID-19 than those living in the least deprived areas.
Of those who died with COVID in May, 92% had at least one pre-existing condition. The most common pre-existing condition was dementia and Alzheimer’s disease which accounted for 38% of all deaths involving COVID0-19, followed by ischaemic heart disease which account for 11% of all deaths.
The highest number of deaths involving COVID-19 of working people aged between 20-64 by occupation group were among process, plant and machine operatives which accounted for 43 deaths and an age-standardised death rate of 25.1 per 100,000 population.
Pete Whitehouse, Director of Statistical Services, said: “Every death from this virus is a tragedy. These statistics, alongside the other important evidence being made available by the Scottish Government and Health Protection Scotland (HPS), are valuable to the understanding of the progress and impact of the COVID-19 virus across Scotland.
“Today we have published new analysis on mortality by occupation and provided a further breakdown by location to cover smaller areas. We have also included updated analysis on mortality by deprivation, leading causes of death and pre-existing conditions. Our aim is that this will provide important information to help understand the impact of the virus across the country.”
Pupils living in Scotland’s most deprived communities will benefit from targeted funding from the Attainment Scotland Fund to help close the poverty-related attainment gap.
Nine local councils with the highest concentrations of deprivation in Scotland, known as “Challenge Authorities” – Edinburgh is not among them – will share £43 million of investment from the Attainment Scotland Fund.
In addition, a further £7 million will be shared from the Schools’ Programme between 73 additional schools with the highest concentration of pupils from areas of deprivation.
Edinburgh’s share of the Attainment Fund Scotland grant is £845,595.
The £50 million is in addition to the £250 million Pupil Equity Funding package announced in May for the next two years and an investment of £9 million to provide 25,000 laptops to assist pupils learning at home.
To help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, schools and local authorities will have flexibility to redirect some of this Challenge Authority and Schools’ Programme funding from existing plans to best support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged families, with a continued focus on equity in education.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “Closing the poverty-related attainment gap remains the defining mission of this Government and the challenges presented by the current pandemic mean that efforts to deliver equity in education are more important than ever.
“This funding will allow local authorities and schools to provide targeted help for some of our most disadvantaged pupils.
“I have given local authorities additional flexibility in how this funding is deployed in light of the unprecedented circumstances we find ourselves in. This will allow schools and councils to swiftly adjust plans and to work together to identify opportunities to undertake collaborative approaches in response to the current crisis.
“It is important that Headteachers continue to be directly involved in any decision made about the deployment of Schools’ Programme funding and Pupil Equity Funding.
“This work will be supported by our £9 million investment in 25,000 laptops and tablets to assist pupils learning at home.”
Additional information on flexibility in the use of this funding for local authorities was communicated on 15 May and can be found on gov.scot.
Poverty’s grip on some parts of the UK, some families and among renters shows the scale of the challenge faced by the government in its attempts to “unite and level up” the UK following years of political turmoil around Brexit.
According to JRF’s state of the nation report on poverty in the UK released today, poverty has risen for children and pensioners over the last five years. Although employment has increased, in-work poverty has also gone up because often people’s pay, hours, or both are not enough.
56% of people in poverty are in a working family, compared to 39% 20 years ago. Of the 14 million people currently living in poverty, once extra-cost disability benefits are discounted four million are disabled and a further 3 million live in a household with someone who has a disability. Children have had the highest poverty rate throughout the last 20 years, with 4 million in poverty in 2017/18.
There are regional differences in poverty rates, with higher rates in London, the North of England, Midlands and Wales, and lowest in the South (excluding London), Scotland and Northern Ireland. Two major drivers of differences in poverty rates are the availability of good-quality jobs and housing costs. Levelling up will require action on low earnings in places like the North East which saw the largest increase (2.2 percentage points), and on high housing costs in London and elsewhere.
People in every part of our country should be able to progress out of poverty, with access to a good job and a secure, affordable home. The latest figures show you are much more likely to be in poverty if you live in these parts of the UK, in a family where there’s a disabled person or a carer, if you work in the hospitality or retail sector, or if you live in rented housing.
The new government has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make historic progress and enable people and communities to truly level-up. JRF is calling on the government to improve job security and quality, see the benefits system as an essential public service that loosens the grip of poverty, and help make more low-cost housing available.
Claire Ainsley, Executive Director of the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation said: “The new government has an historic opportunity as we enter the 2020s. Past successes in recent decades show that it is possible for the UK to loosen the grip of poverty among those most at risk. But this progress has begun to unravel and it will take sustained effort across the country and throughout the governments of the UK to unlock poverty.
“Millions of families care for each other, raise their children and work hard without any guarantee that they will escape poverty – governments, employers and landlords all have a role to play in changing this. It’s not right that so many are unable to build a firm foundation to their lives because their jobs are insecure or they can’t find a home they can afford.
“Without a better deal for working families, and a social security system that provides a public service for all of us, the UK faces further division and deeper poverty. That better deal needs to encompass the basics we all need – from building new homes to funding social security and bringing better jobs to all parts of the country.
“If the next decade is to see true levelling up it will be because we have broken the grip of poverty and unlocked the UK’s potential, not because we invested in eye-catching schemes. As a nation we have made progress before and we can and must do so again with this new government and a new settlement after Brexit.”
Recent years have seen a variety of ad hoc attempts to loosen the grip of poverty one issue at a time. However, there hasn’t been a sustained period where all the four main drivers of poverty – jobs, earnings, benefit rates and rents – have gone in the right direction for fifteen years.
At the beginning of that 15-year period, rents started rising, then during the Great Recession employment levels and earnings fell. Following that, benefit increases have lagged behind both prices and average incomes.
Of all family types, working single parents have been swept fastest into poverty, with three in ten now struggling to stay afloat compared with just two in ten a decade ago. More than half of people in lone parent families in London are in poverty, the highest rate in the UK.
More people are in work but when JRF spoke to lone parents, they talked about “dehumanising” work, feeling trapped “in a never-ending circle” by the benefits system, and being “stuck” in unaffordable or insecure housing.
For families on low pay, insecurity is worsened by the cost and availability of transport and childcare, especially in employment sectors such as care, retail and hospitality where a largely female workforce is often required to work evenings and weekends.
JRF is urging a focus on the following areas to solve the problem:
Good jobs. While the proportion of people in employment has risen consistently for six years, weak local economies in some parts of the country have led to higher unemployment in those areas than in the UK as a whole. This needs to change or progress will stall. In addition, employment among disabled people and carers is still low, and they should be supported to work when they can.
We need to improve earnings for low-income working families, helping people in the lowest-paid jobs or working part-time. Too many people are stuck in low-paid, insecure jobs, with little chance of progression and too few hours of work to reach a decent living standard. Workers need more security, better training and opportunities to progress, particularly in part-time jobs.
We need to strengthen the benefits system so that it provides the anchor that people need in tough times. Social security should support people who need it and we all need to start viewing it as an essential public service.
We need to increase low-cost housing for families on low incomes, and increase support for people with high housing costs. We also need to address the sense of insecurity felt by many people living in the private rented sector.
The amount given in crisis grants to those most in need has increased by more than a third, latest figures show. The Scottish Welfare Fund paid out a total of £3.2 million in crisis grants between July and September 2019 – 34% more than the same period the previous year.
The Scottish Welfare Fund is distributed by local authorities and provides Crisis Grants and Community Care Grants.
Crisis Grants help families on low incomes with unexpected expenses arising out of an emergency or a disaster. Community Care Grants help those on low incomes live independently in the community or to help people maintain their home in the face of exceptional pressure.
The most common reason families said they applied for emergency funding was because their benefits or other income had been spent – up 33% on the previous year.
Estimates suggest the UK Government’s social security spending in Scotland is set to reduce by £3.7 billion per year by 2021. In addition, the benefit freeze and benefit cap are now in their fourth year.
Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “This is the latest evidence that the UK Government’s swingeing benefit cuts are hitting the poorest in Scotland hardest.
“The large increase in people applying for emergency funding shows how much those on low incomes are struggling just to make ends meet.
“The Scottish Government will not stand by and let people who are already in need continue to face a reliance on food banks and the stress of debt and rent arrears.
“That’s why we are continuing to spend over £100 million each year to mitigate the worst effects of the UK Government welfare cuts – part of the £1.4 billion we spent last year to support low income households.
“This is money we should be able to invest elsewhere to help pull people out of poverty but we instead we need to use it to protect the most vulnerable in our communities.
“We are introducing the Scottish Child Payment to tackle child poverty head on which will start for eligible families with a child under six by Christmas. But there is no doubt that without the cuts inflicted on families by the UK Government this could go so much further.”
