Child poverty in Britain is already a problem — and Brexit will likely make it worse
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
OLDHAM, England — When things got really bad, Lara Butterworth would work six days a week and skip meals to ensure that her son had enough to eat.
But even that wasn't enough. Butterworth, 29, was forced to rely on handouts from the food bank before moving back to her mother’s house where she now shares a bunk bed with her teenage sister.
Her inability to succeed was not for lack of trying. “I was doing the best I could,” said Butterworth, whose son, Tyler, is 6.
"Even if I can’t give Tyler everything he wants, I make sure he knows he’s got everything he needs,” she added. “He’s loved and care for.”
The U.K. boasts the world's fifth-largest economy, but almost one-in-three of the country's children are growing up in poverty, according to the independent Social Metrics Commission.
And things are getting worse. The Institute for Fiscal Studies believes that child poverty could reach almost 37 percent by 2022 .
Such warnings come as Britain's prepares to leave the European Union on March 29 , which the Bank of England has said could shrink the economy by as much as 8 percent in about a year .
Brexit means the U.K. will also lose billions in E.U. funding, which has greatly benefited the country's most deprived areas.
The U.N. last month criticized the British government for continuing austerity measures imposed in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis.
"Various sources predict child poverty rates of as high as 40 percent," Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty, wrote in a 24-page report on the effect such policies have had in the U.K. "For almost one in every two children to be poor in 21st century Britain is not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster.”
Alston also dismissed the government’s theory that work is the solution to poverty, highlighting that 60 percent of those below the breadline come from families with at least one member being employed.
The government has admitted that the country would be poorer under any form of Brexit, and many fear that people like Butterworth who are struggling to make ends meet now will be disproportionately affected.
The statistics are staggering.
- Food bank use in the U.K. has increased fourfold since 2012. There are now around 2,000 food banks across the country, compared to just 29 at the height of the financial crisis.
- The fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit referendum in June 2016 had already increased the cost of living for people in poverty by around £400 ($506) per year, the U.N. report said.
- An average of 36 people have become homeless every day in the past year in Britain, according to the charity Shelter.
- The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a research and development charity, warns that if the government does not sufficiently increase benefit payments to account for post-Brexit inflation, up to 900,000 more people could fall into poverty.
- The U.N. report also notes that the U.K. government does not have an official method for measuring poverty.
“British compassion for those who are suffering has been replaced by a punitive, mean-spirited and often callous approach” by the government toward those at the lowest levels of society, Alston added.
DISCOUNT STORES AND DERELICT BUILDINGS
Just outside the city of Manchester, the old cotton-mill town of Oldham has been hit hard by industrial decline and then years of austerity.
With a population of 225,000, it is peppered with discount stores and derelict buildings.
Oldham’s municipal government has vowed to fight back and the town center's first new movie theater in three decades opened its doors in 2016 as part of a $46.1 million regeneration project.
More than 40 percent of children living here grow up in poverty, according to the End Child Poverty coalition of charities . It classifies such households as those with incomes of less than 60 percent of the national median after housing costs — or $321 per week.
In the Oldham neighborhood of Coldhurst, 62 percent of children live below the breadline — the highest rate of child poverty in the U.K.
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As I read this, I worry for England. I know that in times of economic strife, people look for scapegoats. England is ripe for this.
Or am I just bleak?
Well, it IS Christmas, isn't it? Maybe the 3 spirits will appear in May's bedroom when she's sleeping.
These funds and programs they'll loose are likely less than the fees they pay. As the world's fifth-largest economy I highly doubt that the UK is getting subsidized by the EU, it's likely the UK is helping subsidize the poorer countries in the EU. It would be the same if California seceded from the USA, Propagandists would exclaim that all these bad things were going to happen while ignoring the fact that California pays more in Federal Taxes than they receive back so they could easily fund any programs the Feds are now funding.
Zuksam,
Yes, the UK helped Europe, but it also got from the other major countries. The main problem with Brexit is that all of their contracts and all of their banking which is their biggest industries, are going to/ have left England already. I don't know how they could have not known or planned for that fallout.
Here is an interesting article about the impact, from the Brits.
Yeah they helped Europe, and England was getting from others based upon their deals, the EU resulted in two countries making money, the rest losing money in a bleeding draining fashion.
England was getting back a lot less than they were putting in, which was a drain on them pushing them closer to those losing money nations than the really wanted to be.... Germany is right at that edge now...
How can you fault a nation from seeing the handwriting on the wall? The contracts really don't matter.
The divorce was going to be a messy one, a lot of fears are running rampant, and the anger really hasn't come to the surface yet....
And no i disagree that the major financials are leaving London where they are connected into the system, the majors are not going to divorce themselves of their connections into the world financial pipelines.
England will be fine, as long as they stay the course, don't buy into the fearmongering and what if's.....
The day before Brexit will be very very similar to the day after Brexit....
And when they get there and get past it everything will clear up a bit. Right now no one knows what is going to happen and fear is running rampant..
But that's a problem caused by the EU not Brexit, the EU thinks it can force the UK to stay with trade barriers and unwieldy regulations. The UK would like to keep most cross-border business as it is and has been It's one thing to enact sanctions against a rouge nation but the punitive actions of the EU are just vindictive and just prove that Brexit was the right choice. Once it's done I would think relations will normalize since these punitive trade barriers and regulations hurt the EU as much as the UK. The Banking will come back since the UK Economy is why they were there in the first place and they're just doing the same thing as the EU by trying to punish the UK into reversing Brexit. Banks are by nature Globalists so once Brexit is complete they'll come crawling back since Banks can be replaced, they did business there because the money and investors were there and while they may move their operations the money for the most part still belongs to people who live in the UK. Just remember the EU isn't the only Government that can take punitive actions and the Banking industry can be made to suffer for their actions, new banks can be opened and policy's and regulations put in place to make doing business with those banks more attractive to UK citizens that the now foreign banks that abandoned the UK. Let's see how those banks feel about having barriers between them and the pocketbooks of the world's fifth-largest economy.
Forty percent of the kids live in poverty and we still have people wondering why they voted for change. Heck yeah they need Brexit.
One study said 30% another 33% so yes, it's bad, but let's not round up from 33% to 40% just to make it seem worse than it really is.
That's a quote from the seeded article.
"More than 40 percent of children living here grow up in poverty,"
Dean,
The article actually says:
If Brexit goes through. Right now it is about 33% and it is very regional in England. I don't see how Brexit will help the situation. The Pound is way down right now. They need a firm plan on how to proceed with contracts with the EU and they don't have it.
"Child poverty in Britain is already a problem"
Sounds to me like …..Being in the EU didn't solve anything. Why not "Exit" to try a fresh start.
Long before the EU, after WWII there was "The Treaty of Rome" which was trade agreements between 6 European countries, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, which was very successful and lead to European Economic Community (EEC) or better known to us as the European Common Market. The EU's major problem was what they used to call the PIIGS nations. I think it would have been better if they had dealt with that, rather than pulling out.
The "League of Nations" was supposed to be great also.
Things change....Countries get greedy, things just fall apart.....as history shows !
The League of Nations had nothing to do with an economic arrangement. It was what lead to the UN.
The League of Nations was a Coo-p. Just like the EU is now !
No it wasn't.
And where did the funding come from for the league of nations again ?
The EU is nothing more than a "Funding" ENTITY, just like the League of nations was, that REQUIRES all those they forced into the "UNION" to PAY !
The problem Europe has is.....they have to "Fund" their U.N. obligations too.....when they "Feel" like it. Seems Europe can't afford Both ! (smiley face)!
I am trying to define a "club" to a economic entity. The League of Nations is a club that you paid dues to, just like the UN. And while some club members have not paid their dues, that does not change the nature of the fact that it is a club and not an economic organization.
The EU is an economic arrangement.
These are not equal or the same.
And yes, the EU owes for operations of the UN but so does the US. Everyone is behind in payments.
Actually, it is !
"The UK's EU membership fee"
that is such blatant bs right there...
the uk pays the eu many billions more than they receive.
brexit means the eu goes broke faster and they know it.
It's a bit more complicated than that. Read here:
There are rebates from the EU back to the UK.
I get that...
however... the rebates do not exceed the payments made and the costs incurred.
the eu is a paper entity born of trade deals.
the uk is a soverign nation.
the uk holds all the cards. the eu needs the uk more that the uk needs the eu.
stay in the eu because... the children? now we know the eu is desperate.
But what you are not taking into consideration, were the banking arrangments that GB got from the EU. They are all severed now, and hence why the pound is at an all time low. These contracts and others were never considered in the vote.
like I said, divorce can be messy. the value of money goes up and down, nothing new.
eu = trade deals on mere paper
uk = soverign nation
the UK will be just fine after brexit.
the EU? not so much.
There is no way to know how this will play out. You are guessing as much as anyone else.