To think money ends poverty- not education, not mindset, not budgeting advice, just actual money?

[WildHazelCritic]

I keep seeing discussions about “breaking the poverty cycle” or helping people escape hardship and the solutions are always long-term or conditional: learn to budget, go back to school, change your mindset. But poverty is often just not having enough money. And people giving money - whether through better wages, benefits, or direct support, would make the biggest difference. AIBU to think we over complicate it because people are uncomfortable with the idea of redistribution or just giving people what they need?

I definitely know people where it was education. They fought damn hard to get a great education which in turn led to a career of increasingly well paid jobs. That ended poverty for them.

All three of us hauled ourselves out of poverty through education and then were able to help our parents. Money doesn’t solve everything - it depends what you do with it.

Education is the best. Direct benefits never seem to lift anyone out of anything.

When I was 7 I thought I could solve world hunger when I grew up by taking a helicopter full of bags of rice from Tesco to Ethiopia. Just saying.

You can give a man a fish - or teach a man to fish.

Just giving money doesn't end poverty, but education will. Better qualifications leads to better (paid) jobs usually. The main thing better qualifications leads to is more choices in life.

"Teach a man to fish" and all that.

Lottery winners statistically end up broke, don't they? Because they aren't taught HOW to be wealthy.

You could give my BIL and SIL loads of money. They would buy lots of crap and their kids would still be in poverty.

No, it's nonsense. You'll never have enough taxpayers to be able to truly lift people out of poverty by eternally redistributing taxes.

Benefits don't cure poverty. They subsidise poverty. They allow people to live a bit more comfortably in poverty. What changes people's prospects really is education and employment opportunity.

I agree, but I’d also caveat by saying that there are also some people who also would not be helped by education. I know a few people with very basic vocational qualifications who work hard, but they would never attain a higher level than they’re already at even if they tried. They’re just not cut out for learning.

What caused the poverty? Giving people cold hard cash won’t remove whatever it was that got them into poverty in the first place. Sort that out and the rest will follow. And yes it’s largely education.

I get the point you’re making, financial literacy important but it’s not a substitute for material security. People in poverty often know how to budget down to the penny, the issue is they don’t have enough pennies. Teaching someone to fish doesn’t help if there’s no access to the water or if others own the fish.

Education is the long term solution and inheritance

Education gives you more choices in life.

I know lots of people living in poverty who just don't know how to budget and live within their means! throwing more money at them wouldn't help.

It's also down to attitude.

My gran was widowed young then rented her rooms out to help pay for the house and did book work. My other gran came from a large but poor working class family. My grandad came from a family where his dad walked out on them so again very poor. Yet what they all have in common was a strong work ethic and a desire to have a better life, which is what their kids saw.

Unfortunately there’s too many people who do not care if their children get a decent education or better paying jobs. That’s the real root cause of the cycle of poverty.

To me, your post is reading as 'to end poverty we should just redistribute all the money so everyone has enough'.

Which is just never going to happen.

Actual ways to end poverty are education, life chances, etc.

I see your view as 'change is actioned by others to fix poverty for the individual'.

My view 'requires the individual to take the action to fix their poverty'*

And there's lots of individuals who don't like that, as it requires effort.

*And there are those who can't due to disability etc. To me, this is the group we need to ensure are given support.

Apologies if I've misunderstood your post.

But that’s the thing - poverty often isn’t caused by some personal failing or fixable flaw. It’s caused by low wages, high housing costs, inaccessible childcare, unstable work, or a broken benefits system. Education can help in some cases but it doesn’t pay the rent today. Giving people money does help immediately - it gives them breathing room to make other changes. You can’t sort your life out if you’re constantly in survival mode.

I live very close to poverty, I have two degrees and very well educated. I have a good Job with good pay however my husband upped and left me. Due to this I am now struggling financially to manage with 3 young children. I was on Maternity leave when it happened. I had to move to part time to be present for the 3 children. I am very good a lt budgeting. In this situation yes money would severely help me

People can get themselves out of poverty but it sometimes takes a couple of generations and education is the thing most likely to do it. We see that immigrants can work all the hours and make sure their children are educated but the rest of the population can’t do that for their children.
I despair when I see posts on here. Someone has come in to some money that they are not used to. They want to know how to spend it!!! Save it for Heavens sake.

I am 100% do not agree. You can give some people all the money in the world and they will still end up broke. You see it on here all the time. Someone comes down to say I’ve inherited a 10k how should I spend it? They get suggestions of a holiday, new car etc etc. And then once it’s gone and they’re back to being broke. I have a friend who had a payout of 40k, it got wasted on holidays and clothing, they are still renting now and have nothing to show for it. I tried to tell her to buy a property but her dh was adamant that there was no point as they had right to be house by the council…they are still waiting.

and educated people generally earn more, can afford better housing and stable work. No it doesn’t pay the rent today, but education will pay the rent of the teens in the household in the medium term future, or their parents in the near term.

I think 'education' is simplistic.

For a start we need people to do work that doesn't require huge education levels and some of this work is leaving people in poverty due to high cost of housing and fuel. Even if everyoe has a phd, someone is going to be on minimum wage and struggling with rent.

Second, half of people living in poverty are said to have a disability.

I see the logic on an individual level that education leads to better paying jobs, more choice and thus more money.

However although anyone can do this, if everyone did then who does the grunt work of society that enables it to function?

Because if everyone in the traditionally low waged jobs went out tomorrow and got themselves a better job (and that's supposing there's enough because there wouldn't be realistically) who's stocking the shelves, making the coffee, staffing the nurseries and care homes and cleaning the offices? Who are the managers managing?

The problem is the rhetoric that these jobs are for the lazy, uneducated and uninspired in society and they're not worth paying a decent wage. When actually they're by and large, essential. You shouldn't need a degree to earn enough money to not live in poverty.

Frankly, nothing ends poverty since it is defined as being less than 60% of the median income. It’s a moving target, and if we gave everyone more money, there would still be people technically in poverty. They’d just have higher incomes.

No, money is not the only answer. Education, training and a job make much more of a difference. There is a story of a Hollywood actress who helped the Vietnamese boat people by getting her manicurist to teach them. Now, there are thousands of Vietnamese running nail bars.

Think how much more effective this was than just giving them subsistence money. How much better for their self-esteem and the prospects of their children.

Money is shown to alleviate poverty, the Rowntree Foundation have shown that giving parents a small uplift in income, via the Scottish Child Payment, has alleviated the levels child poverty in Scotland.

Yes teach a man to fish, but if that man is trying to make his poverty level income stretch to provide for his family, and trying to gain employment and living in insecure substandard housing he’s not going to have the capacity to learn. He certainly won’t have the money for decent training or education or the resilience in his budget to take a risk on a new career path.

Benefits are currently paid at less than poverty level, if you are a single person with no dependants they’re paid at destitution levels. Digging yourself out of the hole that creates, including often unsecured, unethical debt, is no mean feat and yes, hard as it may be to take, cold hard cash will make the single biggest difference to whether someone gets there.