Protesters Return to the Streets and Experts Predict More Than a Million People Will Fall into Absolute Poverty.

 

On Saturday 2^nd April trades unionists and campaigners for social and economic justice will take to the streets for a third national day of action.

 

Protests will take place in towns and cities around the country organized by the People’s Assembly, including Birmingham, Liverpool, and Sheffield. There will also be a protest outside Downing Street [2]

 

Responding to the Spring statement made by chancellor Rishi Sunak the Michael Burke of the People’s Assembly said that due to the cost-of-living crisis ‘living standards will fall by the largest amount on record over the next 12 months, going back 80 years. The fall in real wages, after inflation, will also be the worst since the Napoleonic era [1]

 

The impact would, he said, he felt by working people who, thanks to inflation ‘lower real wages, including public sector wages the government directly controls. So will anyone on a state pension, or all those struggling on benefits’. Adding that benefits would only rise by ‘3.1% in April. That is literally half the current rate of inflation and about a third of the official forecast for later this year’.

 

Activists from North Staffs Trades Council, the Staffordshire branch of the People’s Assembly and political parties will be holding a protest in Hanley town centre as part of the day of action.

 

The protests will highlight the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, something campaigners had hoped the chancellor would address in his Spring Statement.

 

Although some measures were put in place to support households struggling to make ends meet, including providing extra funding for local authorities to help people struggling to pay their council tax, the support available does not address the extent of the crisis.

 

Following the Spring statement, the Resolution Foundation warned that due to a combination of rising inflation, higher energy bills and the planned hike in National Insurance payments 1.3 million people are at risk of falling into absolute poverty.

 

They also warned that families will see their incomes fall on average by 4% (£1,100), with the lowest paid seeing a fall of 6%.

 

Chief Executive Torsten Bell said ‘“The decision not to target support at those hardest hit by rising prices will leave low-and-middle income households painfully exposed, with 1.3 million people, including half a million children, set to fall below the poverty line this coming year’ [3].

 

Going on to say that the chancellor had ‘prioritised rebuilding his tax-cutting credentials over supporting the low-to-middle income households who will be hardest hit from the surging cost of living, while also leaving himself fiscal flexibility in the years ahead. Whether that will be sustainable in the face of huge income falls to come remains to be seen’.

 

The Hanley protest will take place at the blue clock outside the Potteries Centre at 1pm, details of speakers will be announced later.

Event details and map available at:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1008300056560504/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%2252%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22[%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22share_link%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22share_link%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%7B%5C%22invite_link_id%5C%22%3A456092226307908%7D%7D]%22%7D

[1] https://thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/workers-and-the-poor-are-paying-for-the-tory-crisis/

[2] https://thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

[3] https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releases/33284/