Child poverty in 21st century UK

[Piggywaspushed]

This

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/02/more-than-half-of-uks-black-children-live-in-poverty-analysis-shows?fbclid=IwAR3slutj6sF8Sqg01nGCobCZ7h79C3hKzDOVaY7ckOOoDwTp31U3wssesLA

was a lead article in The Guardian today before Covid and other stuff bumped it off even their news pages.

It is terribly distressing. The headline only tells part of the story:

Black children more than twice as likely to grow up poor as white children
Over 60% of Bangladeshi children live in poverty
Over half of black children, and Pakistani children grow up in poverty.
2.9 million white children live in poverty in the UK. The figures are rising.
31% of all UK children live in poverty.

This government chooses to overlook structural inequalities, commissioned its own (controversial) report which had some useful findings but on the whole buried its head in the sand and fell victim to its own agendas and biases , and refuses to consider the Doreen Lawrence review into the impact of Covid on BAME communities..

The Runnymede Trust says :

''Black children face racism and poverty. But poverty is not defined exclusively by race. So, for more than a decade, the Runnymede Trust has argued that you can’t simply solve the issue of racial inequality without also addressing socio-economic disparities.”'

Meanwhile the government's whataboutery consists of looking only at figures for absolute poverty, rather than the more accepted measure of relative poverty, with some magnificent statistical prestidigitation.

I feel a bit depressed.

Absolutely disgusting, though I am not at all surprised at these figures. White children of non - British descent also more likely to live in poverty. Racism and xenophobia are rife in Britain.

The structural inequality that results in white children being brought up in poverty have always been overlooked. Not sure why you’re suddenly expecting change when it hasn’t happened for the rest of us, ever. The signs of 1066 and then the Victorian period are still all around us: things have got a lot worse since the 70s/ 80s.

I didn't say I was expecting change. What I can't accept is that it has got worse in the last decade. That's a disgrace.

What do you mean by the rest of us ??

I genuinely don't understand how a country can have a third of its children living in poverty, and with such stark racial disparities, and consider itself a great nation. Let alone going around and telling other countries how they should do things better.

It's easy to ignore poverty and actually any other problem if you either deny it exists or define it in such a narrow way that nobody can fit into it. Or can also blame the individuals.

@dreamingbohemian I completely agree, it’s disgraceful.

We live in an individualistic , right wing, every man for himself society where wealth redistribution and taxation is seen as evil

I also think the powers like having very poor people -easier to control others if there is a fear and a divided society

You'll have people along shortly to explain to you how poor people are to blame for their own poverty because goodness knows its so easy to escape poverty once you're in it

FWIW I agree with you, no child (or adult for that matter) should be living in poverty. Our benefit system is punitive and unfair, it's become all about pushing people down instead of lifting them up.

With the shutting of sure start centres and the cuts to socail care and SEN provision this can only get worse and worse.

There is little to no help and no one cares. Thatd the truth.

@dreamingbohemian

I genuinely don't understand how a country can have a third of its children living in poverty, and with such stark racial disparities, and consider itself a great nation. Let alone going around and telling other countries how they should do things better.

Hear Hear!

That article is horrifying. Makes me feel very ashamed.

It happens because people vote for their own self interests, rather than for a party that focuses on society as a whole. Masks are a really solid example of this - where are those people who protested in the streets over masks when funding to education gets cut? Or when UC is cut to the poorest in our society? Or is a tiny piece of fabric worse than compounding poverty?

The government’s ‘levelling up fund’ is a solid example of people’s self focus. A Tory peer was given 330k to fix his drive way. How does this level up the poorest in our society? They get away with it because few people care enough to do anything.

I don't think it's true that no one cares, to be fair. Those that care, unfortunately, have no power.

I think the benefits system encourages the idea that people have only themselves to blame for being poor -- the idea seems to be that you only get help if something has gone majorly wrong in your life. Compared to other European countries where everyone benefits from social welfare programmes.

We used to live in Germany on a very low income, we still had a decent quality of life because childcare was virtually free and child benefit was €180/month per child.

The UK could do the same if it really wanted to but I doubt it ever will.