According to a report published by the renowned Institute for Fiscal Studies (Ifs), 600 thousand English children will live in extreme poverty by 2013. The datum is worrisome since it concerns over 3 million children.
Looking at the Ifs data, it is clear that Great Britain will not be able to respect its commitment in reducing child poverty of at least 10% by 2021, an objective established by the Child Poverty Act last year. The prediction for that date are sadly around 24%: one child out of four will live in a family whose income is below poverty line, that is the 60% of annual average income. This phenomenon will involve 4,7 million adults without children either. The middle-class is going to be heavily hit as well: British citizens’ average income will fall of 7% during the next three years.
Since this will be the most pronounced drop from the Seventies, the English government argued that they have inherited from the Labour Party administration a disastrous economic situation that the global crisis contributed to worsen. Behind political recriminations, the current economic crisis has certainly determined the steep rise of the poverty levels in the UK.
The Government has further affirmed that poverty reduction is still an absolute priority. But the recent austerity measures, adopted in order to encourage the unemployed to find a job instead of relying on public welfare, did not relieve the country from the economic downturn. And, in light of the data in the report, will not give to the English economy the right impulse, at least in growth terms.
The Minister of the Welfare, replying to the Ifs analysis, assured that the choice of abolish many poverty and unemployment benefits in favour of one and only grant (universal credit), “will reduce considerably child poverty, will contribute to foster employment and allow one million people, and 450 thousand children, to live above the poverty line”.
These cuts, which aims at reducing public expenditure and bring deficit back under control, provoked several disputes. In regard to the promises made by the coalition, Paul Johnson, chief of Isf, declared that there is “a colossal discrepancy between rhetoric and reality”. Charity organizations for children, as Save the Children, affirmed that the British government “keeps on denying the tragic reality”.
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