The number of people who are in work but still living in relative poverty has risen according to a report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The report, written for the ITS by research economist Xiaowei Xu, found that between the mid-nineties and 2017 the percentage of households living in-work poverty rose from 13% to 18%.
The report's author describes the rise in working households living in poverty as being the result of 'complex trends', these include high housing costs and rising incomes for pensioners pushing up the line for relative poverty.
The report found that individuals are still, broadly better off in work and that material poverty, being unable to afford basic expenses had declined over the period covered.
These limited gains are overshadowed by increased incomes inequality pushing 600,000 more people into poverty and high private rents and changes to the benefits system since 2010 putting pressure on low income households.
Senior research economist for the IFS Tom Waters said that although the report suggests overall levels of material deprivation have fallen 'severe poverty is a clear policy concern, but it is hard to measure '.
He added that the report, which looked at levels of severe poverty does not 'tell us what has happened to the frequency of destitution, such as rough sleeping'.
Responding to the publication of the IFS report Campbell Robb, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation told the BBC 'our economy should work for everyone, but the rise in working poverty across the UK shows that success in increasing employment isn't always a reliable route to a better living standard'.
He added, 'our next prime minister should bring forward an ambitious plan to re-balance our economy by investing in places where low employment and widespread low pay trap people in poverty'.
Quite so, but do you think that is what we are going to get? If you do, then possess an innocence usually associated with sainthood.
One week into the business end of things and the contest between Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson to be leader of the Conservative Party and by default the next prime minister looks painfully insular.
Neither candidate has said anything of note about the inequality that overshadows not just the 'working poor', it is increasingly a nightmare that haunts people who used to think of themselves as middle class too. Instead we have had predictable promises of tax cuts for the rich and a lot of faux macho chest beating over who is or isn't brave enough to take part in one TV debate or another.
Their silence on this issue is firmly located in willful ignorance of the fears keeping so many people awake at nights in the country they aspire to lead.
They do not know and will never understand the jeopardy constraining the lives of so many people living in what members of the political class patronizingly call 'alarm clock Britain.
Whichever one loses, most likely Hunt, will stroll into a plum job in government, it's always wise to keep your friends close and your rivals even closer. If they don't fancy that they could snap up a few non-executive directorships in the City or maybe write a book. The latter will, of course be published by an old school friend and given glowing reviews by the sort of people they meet at dinner parties.
At no stage will they lie awake wondering how they're going to pay the rent or find themselves queuing up at the local food bank.
Both Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson live in a gilded bubble immune from the stresses of daily life. Its thick fabric of entitlement muffles the growing growl of discontent into a distant and easy to ignore drone.
When power becomes a toy to be passed from one member of a disconnected elite to another a county has serious problems. The UK reached that point in 2016, the Brexit vote and all the upheaval that has followed is the building up of a thunderhead of resentment against the political elite.
The resolution of the egg and spoon race to Downing Street, which to the surprise of nobody will see a white man who went to public school take the reins of power, could be the moment when it finally bursts.
Friday, 28 June 2019
Friday, 21 June 2019
The bill to improve children's services is unjust and counterproductive.
The Department for Education (DfE) have appointed Elenor Brazil to turn around the city's troubled children's services department after a damming Ofstead report.
MS Brazil has a reputation for turning around failing council departments, including those in Haringey and Birmingham. She will be employed by the city council until 9th September, the bill for her services will be £34,400.
This works out at some £800 per day, nice work if you can get it about which James O'Connell of the Taxpayers Alliance, quoted in the Sentinel, said 'taxpayers will hold that by paying such a large amount in fees for outside expertise, they will get good value for money'.
Mr. O'Connell is almost certainly unaware of the unhappy history this city has of paying huge sums for advice from experts. During the Labour years the Civic center seemed to have a revolving door delivering a succession of advisors and consultants and then sending them on again with their pockets jingling.
This time the appointment has been commanded by the DfE and seems particularly unjust. However good her record it hardly seems like value for money to pay MS Brazil, or any other official £800 a day for their services.
Imposing such a cost on a city like Stoke-on-Trent where a decade of austerity has seen services cut to the bone. The £34,000+ involved would be better spent on improving services.
Get again central government has proved to be dangerously out of touch with the concerns of cash strapped councils. They demand the purse strings to be tightened like those of a violin, whilst at the same time force councils to spend like sailors on shore leave on outside advice.
Hopefully some good will be done, but the cost will inevitably lead to other services suffering as a result.
Hail to the Tweet.
US President Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to criticize London Mayor Sadiq Khan over the capital's problems with knife crime, describing him as a 'disaster '.
There is no question that London, and many other UK cities have a problem with knife crime that needs to be addressed. It pales into insignificance though compared to the epidemic of gun violence that has swept America from sea to shining sea leaving a trail of misery in its wake.
Perhaps Mr. Trump should be using his power to take on the gun lobby, don't hold your breath waiting for him to do it through. Upsetting a group that wields such political clout in the name of a higher good would require the sort of courage befitting a leader of the free world.
Sending snarky tweets though, any tiny handed man-child can do that. The faces carved on Mount Rushmore must be turning away in shame.
Noise but no signal.
Like Boris Johnson I missed the first debate between the candidates for the Tory leadership. Unfortunately, I caught the radio broadcast of the second and found it a disappointment.
There was little to be learnt that we increasingly bemused observers of this fight between five bald men over a comb didn't already know.
Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt are both oilier than a can of sardines; Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid tend to bluster when in a tight spot. Pretty much all the candidates are determined to leave the EU on 31st October, deal or no deal. Although they're vague on how they're going to force Brexit through against the implacable opposition of parliament.
To his credit Rory Stewart tried to be a voice of common sense, but mostly got drowned out. He's likely to be out of the race after the second vote anyway.
As a guide to what any of the challengers might make of being Prime Minister at one of the most difficult times in our recent history, your guess is as good as mine.
And Another Thing:
Since writing most of this article the field in the Tory leadership race has been thinned down to a face-off between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. Two white upper-class men who both went to public schools and were chums at Oxbridge. How can they represent the diverse and divided Britain they are vying to lead? They can’t because they can’t even begin to understand it.
There is no question that Tory MP Mark Field was wrong to manhandle a climate change protestor out of the Mansion House banquet for having the temerity to interrupt Chancellor Phillip Hammond’s turgid speech this week.
He claims to have been reacting to the possibility she might have been armed, his facial expression caught by the news cameras says something different. This wasn’t someone reacting to a threat to life and limb; it was an alpha male taking the opportunity to assert his dominance over someone he deemed to be weaker.
Field has since been suspended from his job as a minister in the Foreign Office and has reported himself to the Cabinet Office for investigation. Both acts have been carried out under the unspoken understanding that he will get a slap on the wrist, then it will be back to business as usual.
That is nowhere near good enough; he should be hauled up before the courts.
MS Brazil has a reputation for turning around failing council departments, including those in Haringey and Birmingham. She will be employed by the city council until 9th September, the bill for her services will be £34,400.
This works out at some £800 per day, nice work if you can get it about which James O'Connell of the Taxpayers Alliance, quoted in the Sentinel, said 'taxpayers will hold that by paying such a large amount in fees for outside expertise, they will get good value for money'.
Mr. O'Connell is almost certainly unaware of the unhappy history this city has of paying huge sums for advice from experts. During the Labour years the Civic center seemed to have a revolving door delivering a succession of advisors and consultants and then sending them on again with their pockets jingling.
This time the appointment has been commanded by the DfE and seems particularly unjust. However good her record it hardly seems like value for money to pay MS Brazil, or any other official £800 a day for their services.
Imposing such a cost on a city like Stoke-on-Trent where a decade of austerity has seen services cut to the bone. The £34,000+ involved would be better spent on improving services.
Get again central government has proved to be dangerously out of touch with the concerns of cash strapped councils. They demand the purse strings to be tightened like those of a violin, whilst at the same time force councils to spend like sailors on shore leave on outside advice.
Hopefully some good will be done, but the cost will inevitably lead to other services suffering as a result.
Hail to the Tweet.
US President Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to criticize London Mayor Sadiq Khan over the capital's problems with knife crime, describing him as a 'disaster '.
There is no question that London, and many other UK cities have a problem with knife crime that needs to be addressed. It pales into insignificance though compared to the epidemic of gun violence that has swept America from sea to shining sea leaving a trail of misery in its wake.
Perhaps Mr. Trump should be using his power to take on the gun lobby, don't hold your breath waiting for him to do it through. Upsetting a group that wields such political clout in the name of a higher good would require the sort of courage befitting a leader of the free world.
Sending snarky tweets though, any tiny handed man-child can do that. The faces carved on Mount Rushmore must be turning away in shame.
Noise but no signal.
Like Boris Johnson I missed the first debate between the candidates for the Tory leadership. Unfortunately, I caught the radio broadcast of the second and found it a disappointment.
There was little to be learnt that we increasingly bemused observers of this fight between five bald men over a comb didn't already know.
Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt are both oilier than a can of sardines; Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid tend to bluster when in a tight spot. Pretty much all the candidates are determined to leave the EU on 31st October, deal or no deal. Although they're vague on how they're going to force Brexit through against the implacable opposition of parliament.
To his credit Rory Stewart tried to be a voice of common sense, but mostly got drowned out. He's likely to be out of the race after the second vote anyway.
As a guide to what any of the challengers might make of being Prime Minister at one of the most difficult times in our recent history, your guess is as good as mine.
And Another Thing:
Since writing most of this article the field in the Tory leadership race has been thinned down to a face-off between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. Two white upper-class men who both went to public schools and were chums at Oxbridge. How can they represent the diverse and divided Britain they are vying to lead? They can’t because they can’t even begin to understand it.
There is no question that Tory MP Mark Field was wrong to manhandle a climate change protestor out of the Mansion House banquet for having the temerity to interrupt Chancellor Phillip Hammond’s turgid speech this week.
He claims to have been reacting to the possibility she might have been armed, his facial expression caught by the news cameras says something different. This wasn’t someone reacting to a threat to life and limb; it was an alpha male taking the opportunity to assert his dominance over someone he deemed to be weaker.
Field has since been suspended from his job as a minister in the Foreign Office and has reported himself to the Cabinet Office for investigation. Both acts have been carried out under the unspoken understanding that he will get a slap on the wrist, then it will be back to business as usual.
That is nowhere near good enough; he should be hauled up before the courts.
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