Bubblegum, I did a workshop on poverty a few years ago and apparently if you are unable to afford the latest video games or trainers for your children then you are living in poverty.
We all spend our money differently, I think if people are living week to week solely on their benefits this would constitute living in poverty.
Poverty, OK it's just a word. I lived in Zambia, Kasama in the Northern Provence, where I saw poverty. Mud huts and shanty towns, breeze block buildings with corrugated iron roofs, intermittent water supplies, intermittent basic food stuffs, no electricity. Not being able to afford video games and trainers isn't it.
I'm on benefits and live from week to week, to consider my self as living in poverty would be a very, I want to say spoilt thing to say, but that really isn't the word, and doesn't describe..Having seen people with nothing who have to get up early in the morning to go and find food and often come home with none, walking around in rags, never mind living from week to week, living from day to day. That's poverty and doesn't compare, there are very few people living here in the UK like that and some that are it is because of other things rather than poverty even if the end result in the way that they are forced to live is some what the same. I mean for example dysfunctional families where the children might be living in detrimental conditions as a result of substance abuse by the parents. I think that is a different issue and not really one of poverty because in actual fact the parents can afford those basic necessities in life they just choose to spend else where.
Just saying as I realise that it is just my opinion.
It's all about the definition isn't it? I think our own government put a definition on it of families who live at or below a certain percentage of the average income (it might be 60% but I am not certain). So that's putting a RELATIVE measure on it, rather than "absolute poverty".
We have had members on these boards, however, who talk about not being able to feed their children and their situations being very close to the bone.
I also know that Oxfam do a significant amount of work re child poverty in the UK.
bubblegum when you put it like that it sounds as if we are all whingeing ninny's! We are lucky to have roofs over our heads, benefits to rely on and more often than not, food to eat. But there is poverty in this country, just maybe not as extreme as 3rd world countries.
One Space is Single Parent Action Network's (SPAN) online support service.
SPAN was set up under the poverty programme and a good percentage of our work is to combat poverty and social exclusion.This is part of our mission statement.
SPAN is involved in a range of actions at present:
Our policy and research team have been lobbying government on the Child Poverty Bill and the Welfare Reform and its impact on parents placed on Job Seekers Allowance.
SPAN is working in deprived areas delivering the highly regarded Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities parenting programme from which many single parents go on to education and employment and also volunteer to improve their communities.
SPAN supports the development of family self-help groups and a community empowerment programme that is enabling groups to have a voice in improving their local services.
We work with Citizens Advice Bureau delivering money and debt advice to single parents in poverty and our own One Space site has the money survival kit for one parent families.
Relative poverty is defined as below 60% of the median as Louise states. In real terms this means that a staggering 11 million people are living in poverty in this country.
Given that this is the EU year to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion SPAN is working with others including people in poverty to highlight the effects, and look at solutions for moving forward.
If you want more information on getting involved in the different activities let us know.
EURGH Sorry to hear you have been poorly lindsaygii, hope you are soon clean tissue-rich and blocked-sinus poor:=)
In my working life, I have noticed that in a city where there are a significant number of people that are short of money, e.g. Leeds, there are the services to help them. In a place which is better off, with only a small number of people who are struggling, services are not provided and so those people really do experience relative poverty, exacerbated by the local high prices dictated by the weath of most of the population.
Hi Anna..
"bubblegum when you put it like that it sounds as if we are all whingeing ninny's! We are lucky to have roofs over our heads, benefits to rely on and more often than not, food to eat."
That was very much my point Anna.
"Poverty" refers to the condition of not having the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter.
Where we may to be crossing our wires is here...
"Relative Poverty is defined as below 60% of the median as Louise states. In real terms this means that a staggering 11 million people are living in poverty in this country."
Relative being the key word.. and from an ambiguous statement a conclusion is then drawn about 11 million people of which I am one.
"Relative poverty" is a term used in spin. The initial media request was 'television report on child poverty' which I took umbrage with as firstly its media trying to sell and spin a story and secondly I have seen child poverty, first hand in Africa.
I have seen children in poor conditions here in the UK too but that has been at the hands of uneducated parents, basicaly, OK I realise more complex than just that sentence.. But I have lived that life, on run down council estates surrounded by drugs and crime, people knocking on my door trying to sell me stolen goods, drugs. People being stabbed in the streets outside my house, living from week to week on benefits with various substance addictions, trying to live some elusive life they see on TV. I've been homeless, I lived in hostels with a newborn baby, but I have always had the basic human needs, there may have been the odd day when I didn't but for the most part here in the UK there is some sort of safety net there to pick people up.. and I thank them and I am very greatfull and appreciative of them all for being there and for the ones that helped me personally when I was in the position I was in.
Maybe what I am saying is that here in the UK we live in "Relative comfort" and any documentary entitled "a television report on child poverty" is belittling the poverty of people in all those poor countries made poor by developed countries foreign policies and acts of war or the IMF. Places where the basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter are not so easy to come by. Then "a television report on child poverty" becomes something for nice middle class people to watch between Eastenders and Britain's got talent, get concerned over it, donate a bit of money and then nip down to T*****S for a bottle of eco friendly wine.
Please excuse my anger.
Anger excused and in my opinion very fair. Thanks for giving us that frank insight. I am sure we all in agreement with you bubblegum.
If you are interested in some facts about child poverty in the UK, you can find them on the Child Poverty Action Group
I wouldn't have thought that people living in a state of poverty would have access to any of the middle class trapings such as computers and the internet and be reading this.
Just a thought.