The Guardian View On Poverty In Britain - Desperation In Plain Sight

4th September 2024

New Trussell Trust research is both alarming and shaming. Labour cannot defer action while waiting for an economic upturn.

One of the greatest achievements of the Labour governments in office from 1997 to 2010 was to significantly reduce levels of poverty in Britain.

Over the course of 13 years, a combination of measures took 2.5 million children and 7 million adults out of absolute poverty. These were stellar, transformative figures. But that was then.

Were existing benefit policies to be maintained during the current parliament, according to a projection published by the Resolution Foundation thinktank last week, the number of those in absolute poverty could stay constant at 18% of the total population. Relative poverty could soar.

The dismal triple lock of the two-child benefit cap, the overall benefit cap and freezes to housing benefit is trapping the poorest people in our society in a cycle of despair.

The human cost is laid out in stark new Trussell Trust research published on Tuesday. Around two-thirds of working families on universal credit (UC), it found, are struggling to buy food or pay for energy and other essentials.

Half of those on universal credit ran out of food during the last month. Bills are being left unpaid, families are going into debt they cannot afford, and the use of food banks continues to rise inexorably. The well-understood yet unresolved problem of the five-week delay in accessing UC payments continues to hole vulnerable people's finances below the waterline.

Read the full Guardian editorial HERE

The Trussell Trust