Page 2 - Moravian Messenger February 2019
P. 2

Editorial
Defining Poverty
With the Christmas and New Year rush now well and truly over, two resolutions from our Synod last July deserve our attention and work in 2019. There were two resolutions about Child Poverty in the UK and one resolution about reducing the use of 'single use' plastics in our churches.
The issue of child poverty is one that concerns many of our members but what has become apparent is that people mean different things by the word poverty. Generally, there are two definitions of poverty, that of Relative Low Income or Relative Poverty and Absolute Low Income or Absolute Poverty. So, it is important to be clear in our discussions about what we mean.
Relative Poverty affects those people who live in households who have an income of less than 60% of the median income in that year. It should be noted that the median income is not the same as the average income or average salary. I have found it difficult to get either the average or the median income figure for any particular year. Because this is a relative figure there will always be some people living with a relative low income to others in the community.
Absolute Poverty is measured relative to a fixed standard of living, rather than the rest of the population and is defined in comparison to the median income in 2010/11. Therefore, those living in Absolute Poverty are living in households who have a lower household income than 60% of the median household income in 2010/2011.
Using these measures, it indicates that one in six people in the UK are in relative poverty. However, if you also take housing costs into account in these calculations then the number of people in Relative Poverty in the UK rises to one in five. This is because housing costs form a higher proportion of expenditure for people on low incomes than for those on higher incomes. I personally believe it is important to use figures that take housing costs into account because this is more realistic to people's actual experience. So, in the year 2016/2017 there were 30% or 4.1 million children in Relative Poverty and in the same year there were 3.5 million children in Absolute Poverty and this figure has been falling slightly over recent years.
However, the paper on 'Poverty in the House of Commons Library - April 2018', predicts that the proportion of children in Relative Poverty is expected to rise sharply over the coming years from 30% to 37% in 2021/22. The proportion of children in Absolute Poverty is predicted to rise from 27% to 31% in 2021/22.
Part of this is due to the changes in the benefit system that have been coming in recently as families on low incomes draw a higher percentage of their income from the benefits
system and tax credits than do families on higher incomes. In particular, the introduction of the two-child limit in tax credits and Universal Credit will affect those households with three or more children.
Poverty, whether absolute or relative, happens through a number or reasons: low wages in employment, unstable or erratic employment, relationship breakups, high housing costs, high fuel costs, unemployment for various reasons including illness and lack of good childcare, inadequate benefit levels being paid to families, debt and sometimes because of inadequate parenting.
Poverty does not just mean less money to live on, it can mean a reduction in life chances for those who live in poverty. For example, poor educational achievements in childhood is the main driver that causes poor children to remain poor adults. Low household income levels mean that many of the things that we often take for granted are unattainable or a rare treat. Further low-income levels, poverty, may exacerbate other issues within the family such as poor parental mental health, problem debt or drug and alcohol dependency and relationship breakdowns.
Many of us have children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews and we want the best for the children we love and know. What we want for them should be what we want for all children: a loving family, recognising that families do come in different shapes and sizes, decent secure accommodation to live in, enough food to eat, good schools to attend, proper access to information technology and safe areas and times to play.
The Moravian Church cannot end child poverty, but we can tell our elected representatives and the wider world that this issue matters to us. The Church is not a political party nor should it appear to be allied to one political point of view. There are practicing Christians and people of good will in all the main stream political parties. What we can do is to raise the issue generally and then discuss it without slogans, support charities that help families and most importantly, ask all politicians to make the welfare of children the highest priority when they are setting policies for tax, benefits and employment, housing and various social policies. They need to reflect on the fact that the policies they have adopted over recent years will cause levels of both relative and absolute child poverty to rise again in our land over the next few years. I don't want that for my grandchildren or for any other children!
Sr Sarah Groves
Information taken from the “House of Commons Library: Briefing Paper: Number 7096, 31 August 2018: Poverty in the UK: statistics”, by Feargal McGuinness.
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