Challenge Poverty Week takes place every year, usually in October. This year, Challenge Poverty Week England and Wales is 14-20th October, and Challenge Poverty Week Scotland is 7-13th October. Challenge Poverty Week is a time to act together to end poverty, to tell people in power what needs to …
inequality
Is Britain suffering from “sick note culture” or from unhelpful rhetoric and tired old policy?
The Prime Minister’s speech and press release on disability benefits last week was depressingly familiar. The formula of “moral mission”, “unsustainable cost”, “toughen-up testing” followed by a bit of “they are gaming the system” has been used repeatedly over the past decade – a decade in which the …
Good news for the New Year: A new agreement to curb tax dodging
When you heard Big Ben strike midnight on 31st December, was your first thought that “this marks the moment when international tax laws change to make it harder for multinationals to avoid tax”? If, inexplicably, you had other priorities at New Year, it is worth taking time now to celebrate. The …
Poverty in the UK
UK poverty levels in violation of international law Last month, the United Nations poverty envoy, Olivier De Schutter, stated that the UK is in violation of international law due to the poverty levels currently being experienced. This came five years after his predecessor accused the government …
Act on Poverty
We serve a God of justice - this resource can help us all to use our voices and our votes to help make tackling poverty a priority. Revd Gill Newton, President of the Methodist Conference 2023-2024 A resource for small groups, introduced in 2024 and now updated for 2025 Poverty hurts. It …
Interest rate rises: is there another way?
On 22nd June, the Today programme contained an interview with Karen Morgan, an economist who advises the Chancellor and is employed by the financial institution JP Morgan. She gave an admirably honest account of the orthodox view of tackling inflation. In the summary clip here, she states that the …
The Cost of Living Crisis
In 2022, the cost of living is of major concern for many. Rising prices in food, fuel and transport are forcing people to make hard choices over how they spend their money. The least well-off are the worst affected, with those choices being narrowed to heating or eating, or skipping meals to feed …
The Spring Statement number you need to know: 600,000 more people pulled into poverty
The most important number from the entire spring statement was not from the Chancellor but from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. They estimated that over the next year, 600,000 people will be pulled into poverty [1]. The 14.6 million people already experiencing poverty will of course be pulled …
Excrescences and Performative Cruelty
The former Welfare Reform minster has described two of his own policies as “excrescences” that were made into law because they were popular. The phrase “Performative Cruelty” has been used to describe such policies and most recently in describing the treatment of refugees. Here Paul asks if or when …
Poverty & Inequality briefing – Scotland
Updated March 2021 by David Bradwell “Poverty is not only about shortage of money. It is about rights and relationships; about how people are treated and how they regard themselves; about powerlessness; exclusion and loss of equity.” Participant at local poverty hearing held in …