NEARLY one million people in Britain are just £10 away from falling into poverty according to the new analysis from the leading poverty charity, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).
This new research reveals that the unprecedented increase in the cost of living has left millions of households ‘teetering on the edge’ of dire poverty.
Around 3.2 million people in the UK – equivalent to the entire population of Wales – are only £40 a week from poverty.
Included in those struggling to provide even basic food and clothing are 700,000 children, 1.5 million working age adults and one million pensioners!
Notably the JRF analysis shows that around 900,000 of this group are only £10 a week away from falling into dire poverty. This includes 200,000 children, 400,000 working age adults and 300,000 pensioners.
As it stands at this point in time, there are 14.2 million people in the UK living in poverty, this figure is based on an analysis of official statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions.
Last month seven million households reported that they had gone days without essentials including showers, toiletries or adequate clothing in the last 6 months.
They also reported that they had been forced to skip meals over the previous 30 days to pay for food and energy charges. The average British worker is £10,200 a year poorer than they were in 2010.
This was the year that the then Tory government of David Cameron launched an austerity war on workers’ wages with pay freezes and cuts – a war that subsequent Tory governments have continued in order to pay for the massive economic crisis that erupted from the world banking crash in 2008.
To bail out the banks and businesses from collapsing into bankruptcy British capitalism embarked on a massive accumulation of debt – the national debt is currently standing at £2.7 trillion.
This debt has been raised by borrowing from international financiers (investment funds, banks and insurance companies). The interest repayments on this debt are astronomical.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the Tories had to set aside £20.2 billion, its monthly debt repayment in June 2022, followed by £18 billion for the month of December that year. In June 2023, £13.1 billion in cash had to be handed out to UK creditors.
Billions of pounds are being spent every month to repay the national debt, driven sky high by the necessity of the Tories to ‘rescue’ the bosses and bankers from collapse. Millions of workers and their children are having to pay this debt by being driven into the gutter of abject poverty and hunger.
Paul Kissack, chief executive officer at the JRF (Joseph Rowntree Foundation), said that since 2010 ‘we’ve seen a sustained rise in the number of people in deep poverty, with hardship and destitution growing even faster.’
Commenting on the refusal of both the Labour and Tory parties to make any specific proposals to tackle poverty, Kissack said ‘Pointing to future growth as a panacea just won’t cut it’, adding ‘Failure to act is a political and moral choice’ that both Sunak and Starmer ‘should be expected to be judged on.’
Both Labour and the Tories are in full agreement that there is no choice – British capitalism must be kept from bankruptcy in order to continue to dole out billions every month to the speculators and bankers. The working class are to pay for the capitalist debtors with their lives!
However, the powerful working class have already demonstrated that they are not some defeated force prepared to be driven back to the ‘hungry thirties’ of the Great Depression.
Instead they are turning on their trade union organisations and demanding action.
The way forward is clear – the TUC must be forced to call a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers government that will repudiate all debt to the capitalist financial world, nationalise the banks and major industries bringing in a planned socialist economy.
Socialist revolution is the only way for workers to resolve the crisis of poverty and the capitalist debt crisis.
Only the WRP and Young Socialists fight for this policy and programme – join today and build up the revolutionary leadership required for the victory of the British Socialist Revolution.
