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    UK: Government failures will leave half a million children destitute this winter, reports suggest 📂 Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on December 9, 2020, 5:38 am

    Ceren Sagir, 9 December 2020

    (quote)
    The government's lack of support is plunging people deeper into
    poverty during a difficult Covid winter, with research today exposing
    the hundreds of thousands of children living in destitution.

    In total, about 2.4 million people experienced extreme hardship in
    2019, a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has revealed.

    The JRF said the figure represents an "appalling" rise of 54 per cent
    over 2017 levels and includes 550,000 children, a 52 per cent increase
    in the two years to 2019.

    In a separate report released today, the Resolution Foundation (RF)
    highlighted the government's failure to support workers to
    self-isolate with decent sick pay.

    The RF warned that the eligibility criteria for statutory sick pay
    (SSP) was leaving two million of Britain's lowest-paid workers without
    support, and low replacement rates meant that people struggle to
    afford even basic essentials while on sick pay.

    According to the JRF, destitution is when a household cannot afford
    two or more essentials such as shelter, food, heating and clothing.

    One in seven people living in extreme hardship are in paid work, its
    report said, adding that the situation was more concentrated in
    northern regions.

    It also identified "key drivers" of the situation, blaming the
    five-week wait for universal credit (UC) along with "inadequate
    benefits."

    The JRF expressed concern about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak
    on people with little money and called on the government to retain the
    £20-a-week boost to UC introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic and not
    carry out plans to stop the extra payments next April.

    Opposition figures have backed the JRF's calls, condemning the
    government's lack of support.

    Labour shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: "The
    government must do more to support struggling families who are facing
    real hardship this winter.

    "They must see sense and scrap the planned cut to UC, which will take
    £20 a week from six million families.

    "We urge the government to end the disastrous five-week wait which is
    pushing people into debt, as well as increase support for those on
    legacy benefits, such as carers and disabled people, who have had no
    additional support throughout this crisis."

    SNP shadow work and pensions secretary Neil Gray said: "It is now
    beyond doubt that a decade of Tory austerity cuts have punished
    families and pushed millions of children into poverty and hardship.

    "The Tory government must finally take responsibility for the damage
    it has done.

    "Even before Covid-19, millions of households were struggling to get
    by as a direct result of Tory cuts to social security, punitive
    policies like the two-child cap and bedroom tax, and the devastating
    impact of Brexit."

    Mr Gray called on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to reverse his government's
    "appalling record on poverty" by introducing an emergency package to
    boost incomes, reversing the Tory public-sector pay freeze, delivering
    support for the three million excluded, making the £20 uplift to UC
    permanent and extending it to legacy benefits.

    The RF report warned that the failure of the government to provide
    adequate sick pay was a "significant problem" for individuals'
    livelihoods when they have to self-isolate or fall ill.

    "Given the pressures households have already dealt with over the past
    nine months due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis, it
    is unjustifiable to continue placing the financial burden of
    self-isolating on the individual," it added.

    The low sick pay is preventing some workers who need to self-isolate
    from doing so and could be contributing to the spread of coronavirus,
    the study also warned.

    Trade Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Frances O'Grady said:
    "The lack of decent sick pay has been a gaping hole in the
    government's Covid strategy.

    "Asking workers to self-isolate on £96 a week is not viable -
    especially when many don't have savings to fall back on.

    "Nobody should be plunged into financial hardship for doing the right
    thing. Sick pay should be raised to at least the rate of the real
    living wage and everyone should be entitled to it."
    (/quote)
    -- https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/government-failures-leaving-half-million-children-destitute-during-covid

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