The Awareness of Poverty
In a speech earlier this year the Prime Minister said that the standard of living was higher in Britain than has ever been known. It would be surprising if this were not the case as there has hardly been a period in Britain since 1945 when the living standard has not risen. What makes the 1980s different from previous decades is that there is a widening gap in Britain between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.
This point was emphasised in ‘Faith in the City’ — the Church of England’s report on inner city deprivation:
“Poor people in Britain are not, of course, as poor as those in the Third World. But their poverty is real enough nonetheless. For poverty is a relative, as well as an absolute concept. It exists, even in a relatively rich Western society, if people are denied access to what is generally regarded as a reasonable standard and quality of life in that society.”
Poverty does not have a precise definition though three categories have now emerged. Firstly there is the State Standard which is now the level of benefits paid by the Department of Social Security, now known as Income Support. Second is the Relative Income Standard which is a fixed percentage relative to the average. Thirdly there is the Relative Deprivation Standard which is a standard of living below which people experience deprivation because of their inability to enjoy the same livings standards as their peer group.
The formulation of the State Standard was based on the work of Beveridge as legislated by the Atlee government. Though the level and style of benefits have changed, the fundamental concept has not been revised since 1942. It is a subsistence standard developed from the work by Rowntree, who in 1900 devised a primary poverty line based on the average minimum need for food, clothing, heating and rent.
With the improved living standards post 1945 it seemed that poverty had been removed, especially that experienced in the inter-war years. However, by the 1960s there began a gradual realization that poverty had in fact not been eliminated. Demographic and social change were instrumental in increasing the extent and awareness of poverty. Living standards continued to increase with the poor being left behind. When inflation began to increase the rise in the cost of living affected the poor more than the rich.
The Relative Income Standard therefore emerged which measures poverty by placing incomes in order and expressing poverty as a percentage of the average. Later it began to be realised that though poverty can be measured based on national income standards, deprivation can be experienced by comparing one’s standard of living to the local community’s current standard. The Relative Deprivation Standard was then put forward by those who argued that satisfaction or resentment is not a result of inequality as documented by economists, but of a man or a woman’s assessment of his/her position relative to his/her peers with whom he/she compares himself. In descending the income scale it is argued that at a particular level for different types of family a large number of them reduce more than proportionally their participation in their community’s style of living. They drop out or are excluded.
The State Standard is the most commonly accepted definition of poverty. Using this definition the Child Poverty Action Group calculated that in 1979 Britain had 11,570,000 living in or on the margins of poverty which was 22 percent of the population. Of this figure 51 percent were pensioners, 10 percent were unemployed, 14 percent were ‘others’ (single parents, students, temporarily out of work), 5 percent were sick or disabled and 21 percent were in full time work.
Since 1979 Britain has had a Government whose declared objective is to increase national prosperity and reward those who contribute to this. This objective, even its opponents will have to concede, has to some extent been met. However, changes have taken place in the character and extent of poverty in the last decade. The emphasis has moved from elderly poor to the unemployed and low paid poor. This is reflected by the fact that more of those in poverty are young families with children. The Child Poverty Action Group calculated that in 1985, 15,420,000 were living in, or on the margins of, poverty which was 29 percent of the population. Of this figure 36 percent were pensioners, 24 percent were unemployed, 17 percent were ‘others’, 4 percent were sick or disabled and 19 percent were in full time work.
All the evidence available has shown that poverty has increased over the past decade with a growing gap between those on average income and those in poverty. The Government has argued that the increase of those measured to be in poverty is due to benefits rising in real terms. It is nearly one percent between 1981 and 1985. However, during the same period the population as a whole had a rise in income of 4.8 percent which further widens the gap between those on average income and those in poverty.
It is up to those who profess the Christian faith to be aware of those in need and not to walk by on the other side. While praying for the Kingdom we should do our best that it comes about on this earth. To conclude one can do no better than to begin with a quotation from John Atherton in his book ‘Faith in the Nation’ written as a sequel to ‘Faith in the City’:
“The picture of Britain beginning to emerge is increasingly complex. As a greatly changing economy it is a profoundly ambivalent force, arising from the contradictions of a post-industrialised society and relative economic decline. The result is a society which is increasingly affluent, and yet is increasingly being overtaken by other nations; increasingly separated from other comparable societies and consequently increasingly under pressure within itself. It is also a society which in general is more affluent, but with a growing minority of deprived people increasingly separated from the affluent majority.”