Friday 8 March 2013

It’s the poor what takes the blame



A recent report from a consortium of UK churches is busting the most common myths about poverty – most of which can frequently be read in the press.

They don’t want to work – actually most families in poverty are working households. We have allowed wages to fall so low in this country that many people can’t earn enough to feed themselves and their children.

They’re alcoholics and drug addicts - fewer than 4% of benefit claimants report any form of addiction

They’re not really poor they just don’t manage their money properly - statistics show that the poorest spend their money carefully, limiting themselves to the essentials.

They’re fiddling benefits - less than 0.9% of the welfare budget is lost to fraud: historically a very low level. In fact, if everyone who is entitled to benefits actually claimed them the system would be paying out £18 billion more than it currently does.

It’s an easy life on benefits – in fact benefits do not cover minimum income standards and have halved in relation to average incomes over the last 30 years.




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