http://www.youtube.com/v/3Z-FJQaMJu4?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Continue reading - The Stream – Slum tourism
One in four British children faces poverty by 2020
Related
UK opens new Antarctica research centre 05/02/2013 11:00 CET
Skint and hungry: foodbanks on the rise in the UK 05/12/2012 09:06 CET
Are you one of the filthy rich? 17/10/2012 14:20 CET
Missing British schoolgirl found safe in France 28/09/2012 20:44 CET
Report reveals scale of UK human trafficking problem 11/09/2012 16:20 CET
Nearly 25% of the children in Britain are forecasted to be in relative poverty by 2020, according to a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
Data shows that Britain has increasing rates of destitution, which are calculated to reach nearly 41 billion euros by the end of the decade.
Donald Hirsch, an academic at Loughborough University, says that around 3.4 million children – one million more that today – in Britain will face relative poverty by 2020, with the government expenses for them forecast at levels of 3% of the country’s GDP.
At the same time, charities are quite concerned that working age benefits will be cut off in order for the government’s “annually managed expediture” to be limited. As they claim, such a move would simply store up costs for the future.
A child is considered to be in relative poverty if she or he is living in a household whose income is below 60% of the average in that year. The report uses figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies to show that child poverty will rise by 6% between 2010-11 and 2020-21.
Child poverty in numbers
- Well over half of the parents in poverty admitted that they had to cut back on food, while over a quarter skipped meals in the past year.
- Nearly 20% of parents in poverty say they can not afford to buy new shoes for their children
- One in five children in poverty are missing out on things that other children their age take for granted. For example, going on a school trip or being able to wear a warm coat during the winter.
For more information on child poverty in Britain see the research of EndChildrenPoverty organization.
More about: Poverty, Protection of children, Research, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2013 euronews
|| … Read More
50% of Americans Live in Poverty
Paul Buchheit: Based on assets and income, number of people in poverty closer to 50% rather than
official stat of 15% … Read More
Actual US Poverty Twice Official Figure
Jeannette Wicks-Lim: According to official figures 15 percent of Americans live in poverty, real numbers are over 33 percent of Americans cannot meet basic needs … Read More
Mississippi sued over for-profit prison where inmates sell leashed rats
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announced Thursday they have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of Mississippi because of how inmates at East Mississippi Correctional Facility are constantly at “grave risk of death and loss of limbs.” The suit alleges that inmates in the prison, which is the state’s primary special needs facility for convicts with mental health issues, are subjected to long isolation periods in “barbaric” conditions, often in rat-infested cells with broken toilets. “Prisoner-on-prisoner stabbings and beatings are frequent because the locking mechanism on the cell doors can be readily defeated, and some officers are complicit in unlocking doors to allow violence to occur,” the lawsuit claims. The detention center is run by Management and Training Corp., based in Centerville, Utah, which is not named in the lawsuit. The ACLU and SPLC assert Mississippi lawmakers have long known about the conditions but have failed to act. Dr. Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist who studied East Mississippi Correctional Facility, wrote in 2011 that an overburdened prison psychologist, inefficient mental health programs, and staffing problems were issues that could have serious implications. “All inmates report significant weight loss since arriving at EMCF, from ten to 60 pounds, and from my direct observation it is clear that all the men are much thinner, almost emaciated, in comparison to old snapshots I viewed in their charts or on their identity cards showing them much heavier,” Kupers wrote, as quoted by the Jackson Clarion Ledger. Medical conditions are so bleak, the suit claims, that one inmate went blind from glaucoma and another had a finger amputated after failing to receive treatment for gangrene. “Many cells lack light and working toilets, forcing prisoners to use trays or plastic bags that are tossed through slots in their cell doors,” wrote the SPLC. “Rats often climb over prisoners’ beds. Some prisoners even capture the rats, put them on makeshift leashes and sell them as pets to other prisoners.” The Management and Training Corp. operates 22 for-profit prisons in eight states, and named is in a slew of controversies. Allegations range from a prison warden ignoring an alarm, thereby allowing prisoners to escape, to “rampant” sexual abuse. In 2007, two guards at one of the firm’s Texas prisons were charged with orchestrating a smuggling ring after they were pulled over, while in uniform, driving a van with 28 undocumented immigrants in the back. … Read More
Millions of poverty-stricken Italians unable to afford heat, meat amid economic crisis
The data comes from national statistics institute ISTAT, which published an annual report demonstrating, among other issues, that Italy is witnessing youth unemployment of nearly 40 percent – the highest in Europe.A reported 23.9 percent of young Italians are neither in the job market nor receiving education, the report stressed. In southern Italy, one in three young people aged 15-29 fell into this category.Just over half (57.2 percent) of youths who graduated were currently employed, with the Europe-wide average standing at 77.2 per cent.Fourteen percent of Italy’s population – 8.6 million people – is living on food assistance, a number that has doubled over the past two years, according to the report.Nine poverty indicators were taken into account while carrying out the study; if a family meets more than four, it is considered to be seriously deprived. Some 15 million people – 25 percent of Italy’s population – are living in families that meet three or more of the poverty indicators, the research found.For instance, one poverty indicator is being unable to heat one’s home, something one in five Italians cannot afford. Also, 16.6 percent of the Italians cannot afford a protein-based meal such as meat every two days, from just 6.7 percent in 2010.Over half of the Italian population is unable to afford a one-week vacation, including a staggering 69 percent of southern Italians, according to ISTAT.The recession, which has now lasted almost two years, has taken a heavy toll on Italians, who are increasingly digging into their savings, ISTAT stressed. The savings rate, traditionally high in Italy, is currently far below that of France and Germany, Reuters reported.Italians’ purchasing power also fell by 4.8 percent last year, an “exceptionally steep” decline caused largely by aggressive tax hikes aimed at battling the economic crisis gripping the country. The study results come just a few days after thousands gathered in Rome to protest austerity measures and high unemployment. Demonstrators urged Prime Minister Enrico Letta to create jobs to pull the country out of recession. Protesters held banners reading, “We can’t wait anymore” and “We need money to live.”According to a Friday poll conducted by the SWG institute, the government’s approval rating has dropped to 34 percent, down from 43 percent at the start of May. … Read More
OECD paints grim picture in new inequality report
In an update to its 2011 report ‘Divided We Stand’, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been describing a widening gap between the developed world’s rich and poor in the thirty years until 2008. But in this latest report it claims the process has accelerated in the three years since 2007. The paper explains that many countries had already been in a dire state of economic inequality – their highest in decades – and all the economic crisis did was exacerbate that to the extent that the already existing economic gaps were multiplied by the crisis between the years 2007-10.The report reveals an increase in the difference of how much the wealthy were able to increase their wealth compared to the poor. This means that if in 2007, the rich were becoming richer 9 times faster than the lowest 10 per cent, the difference in what they accumulated in 2010 compared to the poor was already 9.5 times. Of the 34 OECD countries, it appears that “the top 10 percent has done better than the poorest 10 percent in 21 countries,” with the widest gaps seen in the United States, Turkey, Chile and Mexico. In the three years described above, their income status had been continuously plunging by 2 per cent every year. A majority of the countries experiencing the harshest rise of inequality were in Europe, where tough EU austerity policies took hold. Italy and Spain were hit worst. However, a 5 per cent decrease was seen annually in Iceland, Ireland, Estonia and impoverished Greece – which still remains on the verge of economic collapse.One factor shared by all 34 countries surveyed by the OECD is children and young people. Whether it is due to unemployment or poor family living standards, they appear to have it have the worst. “Households with children were hit hard during the crisis. Since 2007, child poverty increased in 16 OECD countries, with increases exceeding 2 points in Turkey, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia and Hungary.”What makes the news grimmer is that cash injections into the world’s financial elite, via banks and markets, as well as Wall Street, essentially only helped the uppermost 10 per cent multiply their wealth. In the years since 2007, their financial portfolios are said to have grown by a large margin. But OECD’s data also explains that the economic crisis could not have been the sole factor in the widening gap between segments of society and in their redistribution of wealth. There has been a process that has been exploiting these economic conditions since 2008, via the bankrupting and impoverishment taking place in the developed world, most likely for the purpose of competing with the developing world’s working classes and their cheap labor. So there is a widening base of severely underpaid working class workers across the entire world. But they don’t get nearly the kind of social, economic or healthcare benefits the upper layers of society do.In the end, it will not get better – the report says. The only reason that 2010 seemed like the worst year is because the growth of the conditions of inequality was somewhat halted by many social state provisions, mostly across Europe. Without them, the report says the real trouble we are in would be more evident, and so would its growth in the years to come. What we are seeing now is only the beginning. … Read More
