‘If they’re so poor why do they have a smartphone’ is a ridiculous argument.  You can’t apply for benefits, jobs, manage your bank account or contact your family without internet and for many in poverty, a phone is the most affordable internet access they have.'

Why is it in Britain, that we tolerate a select group of people, drawn from a very narrow section of society, with very limited experience of social inequality and disadvantage, to debate and discuss for hours on end issues such as poverty and inequality and then to formulate policy based on narrow assumptions?

The social distance that exists in our country between the powerful, who have their voices heard and are given a platform to push their ideas, and the powerless is on stark display, whenever you see politicians, pundits and journalists discussing issues to do with poverty and inequality.

With child poverty forecast to hit a record 5 million next year and with millions more being pushed into fuel poverty as a result of the cost of living crisis, in the fifth largest economy in the world, some in positions of influence and power can’t quite believe what they’re hearing. They live parallel lives and rather than being shocked into action, they’re left instead questioning whether such levels of poverty in the UK are ‘real’.

‘How can that person be poor, they have a smartphone!’ they claim, or ‘in my day we never had microwaves’. Rather than dealing with the structural inequalities that are pushing people into poverty, such as chronic low pay, cuts to benefits and austerity, which means vulnerable people are forced to choose between heating and eating, the aim is to portray poverty as the result of individual character flaws and poor choices.

Such claims are usually made by people who have never experienced poverty, who have never been on the receiving end of cuts to welfare. For they view poverty and inequality as abstract terms and ideas to be debated and discussed. Whereas for millions of others up and down the country, poverty and inequality are daily features of their lives, a lived reality but rarely are their voices centred in such discussions.

‘If they’re so poor why do they have a smartphone’ is a ridiculous argument.  You can’t apply for benefits, jobs, manage your bank account or contact your family without internet and for many in poverty, a phone is the most affordable internet access they have. It’s a lifeline and a lot cheaper than monthly payments for home broadband. We tend to forget that 1.5 million households in the UK do not have access to the internet.

Digital exclusion is also creating a two-tier system for people claiming benefits, with those who lack internet access at a double disadvantage. Having a smartphone for many is crucial in ensuring they are able to survive and apply for the benefits to which they are entitled.

As for ‘in my day we never had a microwave’ type arguments, it’s worth also pointing out that as indicators of wealth change, so do indicators of poverty. A colour TV or microwave may have cost quite a bit of money a few decades ago, but technological change has also meant that such products have become cheaper as time has gone by.

But what those who use such lame arguments to deny the existence of poverty fail to appreciate, is that outside their bubbles of privilege, poverty in a country like the UK is very real. Come and speak to some of the families where I live in Luton, where nearly 1 in 2 children are growing up in poverty, families unable to afford costly school uniforms and parents skipping meals so they can have enough food to feed their children.

You’ll also hear the familiar line of all people need to do escape poverty is ‘get a job’.  Yet 56% of people in poverty in the UK are in a working family and 7 in 10 children in child poverty are in a family where at least one parent works. Facts that those who are keen to push the mantra of ‘work is the best route out of poverty’ are keen to ignore.

So, the next time you hear someone push such flawed arguments to deny the existence of poverty, it’s best to view them as nothing more than an attempt to bury their heads in the sand.

The reason why there’s also determination to portray poverty and deprivation as resulting from individual mistakes and choices is because it stops us seeing such issues as collective failures which are produced by an unjust system. We should guard against such thinking.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

Picture credit: Pexels

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