'Millions' of UKChildren live in poverty

Maps- Left All UK -Top Right Birmingham and surrounding Area -Bottom Right London

Children in Low income Families

Red over 50%

Dark Pink 40 to 49 %

Light Pink under 40%

'Millions' of UK young in poverty

Millions of children in the UK are living in, or on the brink of, poverty, a report claims.

The Campaign to End Child Poverty says 5.5 million children are in families that are classed as "struggling" - 98% of children in some areas.

The campaign classes households as being in poverty if they are living on under £10 per person per day.

A government spokeswoman said it had lifted 600,000 children out of poverty and was committed to the cause.

The Campaign to End Child Poverty is a coalition of more than 130 organisations including Barnardo's, Unicef and the NSPCC.

According to its research, there are 4,634,000 children in England living in low income families, 297,000 in Wales, 428,000 in Scotland and 198,000 in Northern Ireland.

It says 174 of the 646 parliamentary constituencies in Britain have 50% or more of their child population in, or close to, the poverty line.

The parliamentary constituency with the highest number of children in or close to poverty is Birmingham Ladywood, with 81% (28,420 individuals).

Campaign director Hilary Fisher said the figures were "absolutely shocking".

She said: "There are currently 3,900,000 children in the UK that are classed as actually living in poverty, which impacts on every aspect of a child's life.

"A child in poverty is 10 times more likely to die in infancy, and five times more likely to die in an accident.

"Adults who lived in poverty as a child are 50 times more likely to develop a restrictive illness such diabetes or bronchitis."

Ms Fisher said some families could not afford school uniforms, and chose schools for their children based on uniform cost - which was "not acceptable".

She said: "The government has lifted 600,000 children out of poverty, but 100,000 have gone back for each of the last two years.

"If the government does not allocate £3bn in tax credits and benefits in the next budget, then their plans to reduce child poverty will fail."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said the government was committed to the cause.

She said: "We have lifted 600,000 children out of poverty, we are introducing free nursery education for all two, three and four year olds and have seen an increase in educational outcomes at all ages."

She said local authorities and other service providers had to help it raise family incomes, encourage people to apply for tax credit and benefits and help parents work.

She said the latter was known to be one of the best ways for families to get out of poverty

Donald Hirsch, author of several reports on child poverty, said a single-wage couple with two children would stop getting Working Tax Credit when they were on £18,500 a year - leaving them just above the poverty line.

He said: "The official government measure of poverty is families below 60% of median income before housing costs, so families with this composition on Working Tax Credit will be close to the poverty line."

The report's figures are made up from Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit data, and have been calculated by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion.

Another area with high child poverty is Bethnal Green and Bow, which has 79% (23,450) of its children in low income families.

The constituency of Bradford West has 75% (24,900) of children in or near poverty, while Nottingham East has 68% (12,360).

Government pledge

An estimated 98% of children living in two zones in Glasgow Baillieston - Central Easterhouse and North Barlarnark and Easterhouse South - are either in poverty or in working families that are "struggling to get by".

And there are 58% of children in Swansea East (10,470) in families of this description.

The constituencies with the lowest levels of families in, or near, poverty are Buckingham and Sheffield Hallam, both with 17%.

At last week's Labour Party conference, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said child poverty "demeans Britain" and repeated his party's pledge to halve child poverty by 2010, and ultimately to end it.

During his speech he said: "The measures we have taken this year alone will help lift 250,000 children out of poverty.

"The economic times are tough - of course that makes things harder - but we are in this for the long haul. The complete elimination of child poverty by 2020."

Harry Potter author JK Rowling recently donated £1m to the Labour Party, saying she was motivated by Labour's record on child poverty.

But shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling said the figures "underline the vast social divide" within cities.

'Broken Britain'

He added: "There are examples of wards within cities where hardly any children live in poverty but sitting alongside these wards are others where virtually every family lives below the poverty line.

"This just goes to show the extent to which Britain is truly broken."

The Scottish government said it was helping low-income families with a council tax freeze, abolishing prescription charges and piloting free school meals.

"However, the limited nature of devolved powers restricts our ability to act," a spokesman said.

"We need significant extra investment by the UK government."

The report's results are for the period of August 2006, except for ward or zone breakdowns, which are for August 2005.

The Campaign to End Child Poverty will stage a rally in London's Trafalgar Square on Saturday 4 October called Keep The Promise, where it will call on Gordon Brown to keep Labour's promises on child poverty.

Mapping child poverty

Millions of children in the UK are living in or on the brink of poverty, according to a report from the Campaign to End Child Poverty.

The umbrella organisation, which includes Barnardo’s, UNICEF, Save The Children and the TUC, has released data for every parliamentary constituency in the UK.

It found that in Birmingham's Ladywood constituency, 81% of children were living in low income families - the highest proportion in the UK.

Low income means families where no-one is working more than 16 hours a week or where the family is receiving the full amount of Working Tax Credit.

The campaigners say this is not a direct measure of exactly how many children are in poverty, but is a good indicator of which areas have the highest child poverty levels.

Poverty in Canada

Poverty in Canada

In 2006, the value of goods and services produced in Canada was over a trillion dollars – amounting to an estimated $35,600 in wealth generated for every man, woman and child in the country, or $142,400 for a family of four. Despite this vast wealth, there is an ever-widening gap between high-income and low-income individuals and households in Canada. This “growing gap” is contributing to a widening social divide in Canada: a comparative few have unlimited opportunity to fulfill their dreams and potential; many more citizens strain to meet their basic needs. (For excellent detailed information on the growing gap, maintained by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, click here.)

At least 3.4 million people – or about one in ten Canadians – lived in poverty in Canada in 2006. They included an estimated 760,000 children and youth. Demographic groups most susceptible to poverty include Aboriginal people, people with disabilities, single parents (primarily women) and their children, recent immigrants to Canada, and those toiling in low-paying jobs.

To live in poverty in Canada is to live with insufficient and often poor quality food. It is to sleep in poor quality housing, in homeless shelters, or on city streets. It is to be at much greater risk of poor health. It is to be unable to participate fully in one’s community and greater society. And it is to suffer great depths of anxiety and emotional pain, borne by young and old alike.

The persistence of poverty and income inequality, and their negative impacts on health, social cohesion and economic prosperity calls out for vision, leadership and unwavering determination to tackle the root causes of these problems. The National Anti-Poverty Organization is dedicated to this agenda.

Did You Know?

There is no official definition of poverty in Canada and no official "poverty lines" for the nation. However, there are several measures of “low income” which are often used as proxies for poverty lines. These measures include the Low Income Cut-off (LICO), the Low Income Measure (LIM) and the Market Basket Measure (MBM). For a short review of these measures, click here (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Poverty and Social Exclusion

Solving Complex Issues through Comprehensive Approaches

Download the Report/Study:

• Poverty and Social Exclusion: Solving Complex Issues through Comprehensive Approaches - PDF File, 249 Kb

New Study Documents Brutal Impact of Homelessness on Women
News Release, CNW (23 June 2008)

"A Life-Threatening Condition"
TORONTO, June 23 /CNW/ - A new study released today documents the brutal impact of homelessness on the lives of women in Toronto. Calling homelessness a "life-threatening" condition for women, the study reveals staggering rates of sexual assault among homeless women, and documents health impacts that significantly reduce life expectancy. The Women & Homelessness Research Bulletin, released jointly by Street Health and Sistering, paints a detailed picture of women's street homelessness today and its devastating impact.

"We were staggered to learn that homeless women are ten times more likely to be sexually assaulted than homeless men and are more likely to have a serious physical health condition," stated Kate Mason, study coordinator at Street Health. "One in five women had been sexually assaulted in the past year and almost all - 84% - had at least one serious physical health condition."

"Absolute poverty exists on the streets of our city with brutal consequences for women," said Angela Robertson, study advisor, and Executive Director of Sistering. "Homeless women cannot meet their basic survival needs - they don't know where their next meal is coming from, they don't have safe shelter or private space to address personal hygiene needs. The provincial government is developing a strategy to reduce poverty, that strategy should include steps to bring an end to women's street homelessness. It's unsafe and unjust to condemn a woman to live on the street."

The study is a partnership between Street Health, an organization providing nursing care and street outreach services to homeless people, and Sistering, a multi-service agency for homeless and low-income women in Toronto. It surveyed 97 homeless women in Toronto about their health status and access to health care. Findings include information on the causes of homelessness, the difficult daily lives of homeless women, their physical and mental health status, as well as the barriers homeless women face when attempting to access health care. The bulletin sets out a series of solutions aimed at service providers and all levels of government to improve the health of homeless women and end homelessness... [Read More]

The cost of homelessness
Lori Culbert, With Files From Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun (22 March 2008)

B.C. spends $644 million a year on services for those on the street. A study says the same amount would buy supported housing for all...

...the conclusion of the 150-page report -- written by five academics at Simon Fraser University, the University of B.C. and the University of Calgary -- is that B.C. taxpayers could even save money if that cash was instead spent directly on supported social housing.

"We wound up generating an estimated cost [of homeless people] in B.C. that is roughly the same as the cost of implementing the full-meal deal of housing and supports for every one of those people," said one of the authors, professor Julian Somers, director of SFU's Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction.

The report, completed last month, says its research shows that approximately 130,000 people in B.C. have a severe addiction and/or a mental illness; about 26,500 of those people are "inadequately housed and inadequately supported," including 11,750 who are "absolutely homeless."

The authors said that at the time the report was written, there were 7,741 supported housing units in B.C. for people with mental illness and/or addictions, and therefore concluded an estimated 18,759 vulnerable people were at "imminent risk of homelessness."

Study:
Housing and Support for Adults with Severe Addictions and/or Mental Illness in British Columbia

If these people had been taken care of properly in the first place the majority of them would not have ended up on the streets. The cost of the mess created by the cuts to welfare and other services are part of the cause. If you end up homeless you will become mentally or physically ill. Even those living in poverty are more prone to both as well.

Prevention is the cure

Meeting basic needs for the poorest of the poor

Meeting basic needs for the poorest of the poor

Send and e-mail

Please take the time.

We must place a greater priority on financial resources for the poorest of the poor. The failure of government to ensure all families and individuals have sufficient income to meet their basic needs has caused holes in the safety net to steadily worsen.

In Ohio, we call on the Governor and the General Assembly to support the following:

• Public assistance benefits through the Ohio Works First program should be increased by $100 per month. Currently, the average family receives a combined income of cash and Food Stamps at roughly 50% of the poverty level.

• Health care services must be available to all adults earning less than 100% of the federal poverty level. Individuals not eligible for Medicaid lack the capacity to provide themselves with essential health care.

• Mental health and substance abuse services must be available to all adults and children below the poverty level. Treatment is often jeopardized by a lack of basic needs. Personal and financial recovery must proceed together.

• The disability determination process must be fixed. With two systems (Medicaid and Social Security) to navigate, people waste months or years trying to get the help they need.

We call upon the President and Congress to address the related federal issues:

• Food Stamp benefits are too low. Food Stamp benefits must be increased to meet 100% of the nutritional needs of poor families. Food Stamps are intended to supplement about 75% of a family’s nutritional needs. The presumption is people could make up the difference. With stagnant income levels and the increased cost of living, this is not possible. The end result overwhelms our food pantries and soup kitchens.

• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are too low and need to be increased substantially. Payments for the elderly and disabled, in Ohio, average $430 a month (about 55% of the poverty level). Maximum payment is $637 per month (75% of the poverty level). These people cannot work, yet they are forced to live with the constant struggle to meet their basic needs.

We must provide sufficient benefits through our safety net programs to meet all basic needs for these families. This is already a crisis for the people affected by these issues.

We call upon our state and federal elected representatives to not turn away from these serious problems.

We must take immediate action!

Please contact your federal and state elected officials to urge them to address these issues!

For more information on this campaign, see: http://dontturnawayoh.blogspot.com/

· This campaign is targeting your Governor, members of your State Senate, members of your State House, the President of the United States, members of the US Senate and members of the US House of Representatives.

· The campaign ends on Apr 01, 2010.

Study Links Famine, Increase in Mental Illness
by Scott Simon
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4818769

Listen Now [4 min 12 sec] add to playlist
Weekend Edition Saturday, August 27, 2005 • A new study shows increased rates of schizophrenia among people born during the 1959-61 famine in China, when millions starved. The study's chief author, Dr. David St. Clair of the University of Aberdeen, discusses the implications with Scott Simon.

Gee I wonder if there is a connection. One doesn't have to be a rocket Scientists to connect the so called dots of starvation and illness but still many are starving in our own country and becoming ill because of it.
Malnutrition is a cause for mental illness. It is also the cause of many other illnesses as well.
Prevention is the cure.

US pledges more cash for hungry

President George W. Bush wants America to spend a further $770 million (NZ$990 million) to help alleviate dramatically escalating food prices that threaten widespread hunger and increasing social unrest around the world.

The appeal to Congress takes the total in emergency food funding close to $1 billion.

In a surprise appearance at the White House, Bush announced he was asking lawmakers to approve the additional funds for global food aid and development programmes.

The money - to be directed primarily at needy African nations - is being included in a broader $70 billion Iraq war funding measure for 2009 that the White House sent to Congress.

"In some of the world's poorest nations, rising prices can mean the difference between getting a daily meal and going without food," Bush said. "The American people are generous people and they're a compassionate people. We believe in the timeless truth 'to whom much is given, much is expected."'

The new money comes on top of $200 million Bush ordered released two weeks ago for emergency food aid. It is in addition to a pending $350 million request for emergency food aid. Because the new funds are part of a 2009 budget, they will not be available for distribution until the start of the fiscal year on October 1, even if they are approved sooner.

Even so, Bush called it "just the beginning" of the US effort to help. He said the United States would spend a total of $5 billion this year and next on food aid and related programmes. "America's in the lead, we'll stay in the lead and we expect others to participate along with us," he said.

The money is aimed at meeting immediate needs with direct shipments of food aid, and the White House said it would allow for millions more people to get help. Emergency aid accounted for US$620 million of the request, said Steve McMillin, deputy director of the president's Office of Management and Budget.

The funds also have long-term aims, with $150 million aimed at boosting US programmes to help farmers in developing countries increase productivity and buy local crops, so communities are less in need of emergency help in the first place.

The issue has become more urgent because of food shortages and rising prices that, combined with high gas costs and rising home foreclosures, are putting a huge squeeze on families at home and abroad. What has been termed the first global food crisis since World War II has resulted in cries for help from United Nations officials and raised questions about how Bush will respond.

Some have blamed the food crisis in part on Bush-backed policies that push food-based biofuels such as ethanol as alternative energy sources.

Bush says diverting corn and soybeans into fuel is still a smart approach, though he favours increasing funding for research into eventually using wood chips or switchgrass rather than food crops. His chief economic adviser, Edward Lazear, said ethanol made from corn was responsible for just 2 to 3 per cent of the overall increase in global food prices, which are 43 per cent up this year over last year.

The announcement drew praise from several quarters.

"Millions of people around the world may be saved from starvation if we can quickly move forward with the president's request," said Democrat Senator Dick Durbin. "Global aid is not only the right thing to do; it's the smart and safe thing to do.

The United States is the world's largest provider of food aid, delivering more than $2.1 billion to 78 developing countries last year.

- AP

If they took the money for war and fed people everyone would have food. But Bush wants to continue the wars for his friends to make profit. He obviously really doesn't care about the hungry or more money would be allocated to the hungry. Comparatively speaking. Do the math. Feed the hungry or fund his war which is it. Pass his bill

Food riots 'will spread'

Food riots in developing countries will spread unless world leaders take major steps to reduce prices for the poor, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said yesterday.

Despite a forecast 2.6 per cent rise in global cereal output this year, record prices are unlikely to fall, forcing poorer countries' food import bills up 56 per cent and hungry people on to the streets, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf said.

"The reality is that people are dying already in the riots," Diouf told a news conference.

"They are dying because of their reaction to the situation and if we don't take the necessary action there is certainly the possibility that they might die of starvation.

"Naturally, people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react."

The FAO said food riots had broken out in several African countries, Indonesia, the Philippines and Haiti. Thirty-seven countries face food crises, it said in its latest World Food Situation report.

Some of the worst tensions have been in Haiti, where protests at the high cost of living descended into riots last week and four people were killed in clashes with security forces.

There is concern about rising prices in the Philippines, but it was not clear what incidents the FAO was referring to. "I am surprised that I have not been summoned to the UN Security Council, as many of the problems being discussed there would not have the same consequences on peace, security and human rights [without the food crisis]," Diouf said.

Increased food demand from rapidly developing countries such as China and India, the use of crops for biofuels, global stocks at 25-year lows and market speculation are all blamed for pushing prices of staples such as wheat, maize and rice to record highs.

While people in richer countries have noticed higher supermarket prices, the effect is far more pronounced in developing countries, where 50 to 60 per cent of income goes to food compared with just 10 to 20 per cent in the developed world.

Diouf called on heads of state and government to attend a food crisis summit at FAO headquarters in Rome on June 3-5.

He said the priority was a "massive seed transfer", to ensure farmers in poor countries could buy seeds, fertiliser and feed at prices they could afford.

Other measures include creating financial mechanisms to ensure poorer food-importing countries could continue to buy the food they need and give a larger proportion of aid budgets to agriculture, Diouf said.

The comments echoed those of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who called this week for a co-ordinated response to the food crisis which would include reaching a deal on the Doha trade talks and the possible use of market-based, risk-management instruments to avert food price volatility.

Diouf said it was normal to expect developing countries to put controls on food exports, even if that exacerbated global food prices. The price of rice jumped 40 per cent in three days recently when India and Vietnam banned exports, an FAO official said.

"Export bans are a normal reaction for any Government that has a prime responsibility to its people," he said.

Expanded crop plantings this year should mean a 2.6 per cent increase in cereal output, with wheat up 6.8 per cent on last year, the FAO has forecast.

But with only a small proportion of that reaching the open market, the effect on prices will be negligible as other price pressures remain, it said.

- REUTERS

Lobbyists float $4b solution to poverty

Children should be a priority around the world. they are our Future

Child poverty lobbyists are calling for higher welfare benefits and tax cuts for the lowest income earners in next month's Budget - and axing tax breaks for the middle class.

The Child Poverty Action Group, led by paediatricians and academics, wants to abolish tax subsidies for KiwiSaver and use the money to cut the bottom tax rate to 10 per cent on incomes of up to $20,000 a year.

Its wide-ranging report also calls for extending free primary healthcare for children to after-hours accident and medical clinics and extending the policy of 20 hours a week free childcare to services such as kohanga reo and playcentres, which are parent-led rather than teacher-led.

The whole package would cost more than $4 billion a year but that would be partly paid for by axing the KiwiSaver subsidies to save around $1 billion a year. The subsidies are expected to go mainly to middle-class families who can afford to save.

The net cost of around $3 billion would be about twice as much as the $1.5 billion which Finance Minister Michael Cullen has publicly earmarked for tax cuts in the Budget, but he is widely expected to deliver somewhat more than he has promised.

New Zealand came third-worst in the developed world in a Unicef survey of child poverty around the year 2000, with a quarter of all children then living in families earning less than 60 per cent of the median income.

The Government announced a goal in 2002 of "eliminating child poverty". But unlike Britain, which has vowed to end it by 2020, no target dates have been set here.

The action group says New Zealand should adopt the same target date of 2020 and define poverty as earning less than 60 per cent of the median - currently around $510 after tax a week for a single parent with two children or $630 a week for a couple with two children.

By comparison, benefits and family support currently pay only $403 a week to a sole parent with two children or $446 to a two-child couple.

Despite a dramatic decline in unemployment in the past decade, 212,000 children, or 23 per cent of all children, were in families receiving benefits last September. About 77 per cent were in families on the domestic purposes benefit, 14 per cent on sickness and invalid benefits and 9 per cent on unemployment and other benefits.

"The essential role access to a benefit plays in the lives of many New Zealand women and children has been highlighted by the Ministry of Social Development," the report said.

A ministry report found that almost one in every two mothers (46 per cent) by 1995 had been a sole parent at some time by the age of 50.

The group said the current tax bracket for the lowest tax rate of 15 per cent, up to incomes of $9500 a year ($183 a week), had not changed for 30 years.

It recommends cutting that rate to 10 per cent and/or raising the tax threshold to $20,000 ($385 a week), or some combination of the two.

The Labour and National parties both cautiously welcomed the report. Social Development Minister Ruth Dyson said Labour had made progress in reducing child poverty through Working for Families tax credits, cheaper doctors' fees and 20 hours of free early childhood education but there was still much to be done.

KEY PROPOSALS

* Pledge to end child poverty by 2020. (Why wait do it Now)
* Raise benefits and family support to 60 per cent of the net median household income, adjusted for family size. (How about income so children are not living in poverty at all.)
* Resurrect universal family benefit of $20 a week for all children under 5.
* Extend $60 a week income-tested in-work tax credit to all families with children.
* Cut the bottom tax rate to 10 per cent and/or extend the bottom tax bracket to $20,000.
* Extend free primary health care for children under 18 to after-hours clinics. (How about 24 hours a day)
* Extend 20 hours free childcare to parent-led centres such as playcentres and kohanga reo.
* Abolish tax subsidies for KiwiSaver.