{"id":15349,"date":"2018-06-08T16:41:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T15:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15349"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:42","slug":"shocking-new-poverty-figures-show-true-human-cost-of-austerity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15349","title":{"rendered":"Destitution by govt design"},"content":{"rendered":"
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More than 1.5m people in Britain are living in destitution, shocking new figures show.<\/p>\n

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The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) analysis<\/a> led to a call from Unite for the government to tackle severe poverty by urgently reforming the benefits system.<\/p>\n

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Around 1,550,000 people are suffering in \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshameful\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 conditions, the JRF-commissioned research found, including 365,000 children.<\/p>\n

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Researchers from Heriot-Watt University, which carried out the study, found that the destitute were often going without food, heating or electricity at home, with some being forced to sleep rough.<\/p>\n

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JRF said the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s welfare policies often create destitution \u00e2\u20ac\u015bby design\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and are leaving people without help when they need it most.<\/p>\n

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The charity highlighted benefit cuts, delays in payments, draconian debt recovery methods and the housing crisis as factors for pushing people into destitution.<\/p>\n

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Rowntree Foundation chief executive Rob Campbell said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo be destitute doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just mean getting by on very little, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s losing the ability to keep a roof over your head, eat often enough, or afford warm clothes when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cold. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keep yourself clean or put the lights on.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen to anybody, let alone over one and a half million people in the UK.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Although a fall in benefit sanctions between 2015 and 2017 has led to a reduction in extreme destitution, the introduction of the new all-in-one benefit system Universal Credit threatens to reverse the trend, the report said.<\/p>\n

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Heriot-Watt University professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe apparent higher levels of sanctions in Universal Credit are a sharp warning that destitution could increase again as the new benefit expands in the coming years.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Head of Unite Community, Liane Groves, said it was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshocking\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 that in 21st<\/sup> Century Britain 1.5m people are destitute.<\/p>\n

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Groves said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is the direct result of the Tories inflicting eight years of austerity, dismantling the social safety set and encouraging a race to the bottom economy built on low wages and insecure work.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs well as ending some of the root causes of in-work poverty such as zero hour contracts and bogus self-employment, the government must make the benefits system fit for purpose.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Groves added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the short term, this means immediately halting the roll out of Universal Credit. With a sanctions rate 10 times higher than for Jobseeker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Allowance, continuing the introduction of Universal Credit will just push more and more people into destitution.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 1.5m people in Britain are living in destitution, shocking new figures show.<\/p>\n

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) analysis led to a call from Unite for the government to tackle severe poverty by urgently reforming the benefits system. Around 1,550,000 people are suffering in \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshameful\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 conditions, the JRF-commissioned research found, including 365,000 children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[265,76,462],"wps_subtitle":"Shocking new poverty figures show true human cost of austerity","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15349"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26147,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15349\/revisions\/26147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}