If you are a woman living in one of the poorer parts of England,
you are likely to die 8 years sooner than if you lived in a more affluent
community. The UK trails in a disappointing 25th out of 38 countries
ranked for women’s life expectancy.
Research carried out by the Health Foundation and reported
by the Guardian this week shows that can expect to live 78.7 years. This is way
behind the average for other countries with only Mexico (77.9) faring worse.
The average lifespan in the UK is 79.0 years for men and
82.9 years for women. Life expectancy in the UK has been increasing for forty
years, although the rate has slowed over the past decade. This has, partly, been
driven by the impact of the pandemic and as it recedes the improving trend may
return [5].
Life expectancy for women living in more affluent parts of
England is 86.4 years, only beaten by Japan with an average life expectancy of
87.3 years.
Improving women’s health along with health outcomes in general
for people living in disadvantaged areas has been front and centre of
government ‘levelling up’ plans. These figures show the size of the challenge
and the lack of progress that has been made.
They demonstrate with grim accuracy the yawning gap between
the right and the poor, as Jo Bibby director of health at the Health Foundation
told the Guardian the poorest people can “expect to live shorter and less healthy lives than their
richer counterparts [1]”.
She added that the less than world beating response is
evidence the government “has so
far failed to acknowledge the mountain it needs to climb to bring life chances
in the UK in line with other comparable countries.”
Grim as they are these
figures don’t yet include the impact of the cost-of-living crisis that has hit
already struggling communities hardest.
Data gathered by the Office for
National Statistics shows that 83% of adults reported a rise in their cost of
living in March. This was driven by rises in the cost of food and utilities
[2].
Additional pressure has been
added by the Bank of England predicting inflation could rise to 8% [3]. At the same
time incomes are being squeezed by a rise in National Insurance contributions
for some workers and increases to benefits that fail to keep pace with
inflation.
As a result, warn the
Resolution Foundation, an extra 1.3 million people, including 500,000 children
will fall into absolute poverty in 2023 [4].
What is to be done? Maybe the
findings of a trial carried out by Basic Income Conversation and the London
Federation of Solidarity Funds suggests and at least part of an answer.
Basic Income Conversation
work to promote the idea of a Universal Basic Income provided unconditionally
to all citizens, the London Federation of Solidarity Funds is a coalition of
community financial support groups initially set up in the capital during the
pandemic. They provided small no strings attached grants to people who had
suddenly been left without income.
Basic Income Conversation
worked with four funds operating in the most deprived parts of the capital, up
to April this year they had issued 2140 £50 payments to people they refer to as
‘neighbours’ or ‘expensers’.
This helped people in receipt
of the money to meet expected expenses with which they were struggling and
identified areas such as people with ‘no recourse to public funds’ due to their
residency status [6].
The efficacy of the scheme
is demonstrated by the fact that 71% of expensers surveyed said they felt less
stressed, 42% said they felt more financially secure and 75% said the solidarity
fund had provided them with help they couldn’t find anywhere else.
More importantly people who
accessed the scheme felt they had been trusted and treated with respect, unlike the formal
benefits system which operates on a basis of suspecting everyone of fraud.
The key learning from this is
that you can’t help people or communities just by giving them money, a mistake
the government makes in its levelling up agenda time and time again, then compounds
by announcing the same grant twice or more over.
How you treat people matters
massively, if you make them feel diminished by seeking help then they will do
so only as a last resort and usually too late to do any good. Treat them with respect
and they will come forward sooner and, in a detail sure to please the bean counters,
require less resources as a result.
Poverty is at the root of
most health and social problems faced by developed countries. The poor have the
worst diet, live in substandard housing for which they are charged crippling
rents, work in the most unsatisfying jobs, and must fight tooth and nail to get
even the most basic support from a monolithic state. No wonder they fall sick
more often and die sooner.
The payments offered by the
London Solidarity Funds aren’t a Universal Basic Income, but they are further
evidence that one could be implemented and made to work if it is done in the
right way.
This means involving local
communities, treating people seeking help with respect by trusting them to be honest
and having the imagination to look beyond a status-quo that blatantly does not
work.
The cost of living is,
unsurprisingly, going to be the dominant issue at the local elections next
month, and, likely at the next general election too. Public patience with
promises of jam tomorrow that rapidly turn into a timid sticking with what we’ve
always done has worn thin to the point of transparency.
The time has come for a
sustained nationwide trial of a universal basic income to be something all
political parties talk about. If not then all of us, men and women alike, risk
living lives that are harder and shorter than they need be.
[4] https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/inflation-nation/
[6] A full and Shorter version of the Basic Income
Conversation report can be downloaded from https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/user_files/user_files/000/075/205/original/Full_report_-_Basic_Income_Month.pdf?link_id=2&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-read-the-report-on-our-crowdfunded-basic-income-pilot&email_referrer=email_1514467&email_subject=new-report-results-of-our-basic-income-month
