The UK has seen the biggest rise in absolute poverty for 30 years
On the weekend, the creator of the Thick of It, Armando Iannucci, slammed the government’s response to poverty in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, comparing the UK to a “Dickens novel” amid rising poverty rates.
It came as new figures found the UK has seen the biggest rise in absolute poverty for 30 years to 12 million people in 2022-23, a rise of 600,000, shedding a light on the sheer political failure to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Child poverty also reached a record high according to the DWP’s official statistics, laying bare the devastating numbers behind the everyday struggles faced by so many people in Britain.
This graph below by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) highlights the shocking rise in food insecurity over the past three years, with the number of people unable to afford enough food soaring by a massive 53% in the last year alone.
JRF senior economist Rachelle Earwaker explained the rise in people experiencing food insecurity through another shocking graph, which highlights the soaring cost of food relative to benefits in the UK, with food prices rising twice as fast as benefits since April. It highlights both the Tories inability to provide an adequate benefits system to support working and non-working families or to curb rising costs.
Food bank use has in turn risen exponentially under the Tories highlighting the scale of need. From the 600,000 packages handed out in Britain in 2010 to the current statistics from the Trussell Trust below which expose the sheer steepness of the rise of those relying on food banks.
The most deprived areas have been hit the hardest by poverty, as a recent chart showed just how badly the Tory Party has let down children in the poorest parts of the country, where child poverty has risen six times faster than in the richest areas.
If UK ministers insist that they’ve done all they can to tackle poverty, you could show them this. A damning graph from UNICEF which compared child poverty in 39 OECD and EU countries, and found the UK bottom of the list, where child poverty has increased by 20% over seven years, faster than any of the other countries.
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward, focusing on trade unions and environmental issues
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