‘30% of children in Wales living in poverty’
NEARLY a quarter of people in Wales are living in poverty – the highest rate in the UK, a report has claimed.
Despite an overall gradual decline in the number of people living in poverty over the past 20 years, the report says progress on child poverty has stalled with nearly a third of children (30%) in Wales still affected.
The monitoring report, Poverty in Wales 2018, released by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) today, also warns that poverty is increasing among pensioners, single people and couples with children. The overall poverty rate in Wales for 2013/16 was 23% compared to 27% in the three-year period 1994/97.
The report, which found there were 710,000 people in Wales living in poverty, said rising living costs, especially housing costs, combined with cuts to benefits and poor-quality jobs had led to an increased risk of living in poverty for families both in and out of work.
GROWING numbers of Welsh families are at risk of being trapped in poverty, a major report warns today.
Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that Wales has a higher rate of poverty than England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
It fears that efforts to reduce poverty – which had delivered “great strides – are now “unravelling”. A key concern is that the Welsh labour market is not delivering “enough jobs which offer pay and hours that will take people out of poverty”.
There is a gap of around 15 years in healthy life expectancy among those who live in the most deprived parts of Wales compared to those in the least deprived parts of the nation.
There is also concern about the impact of poverty on family life. There is a higher share of households with children where the parents have separated in Wales (37%) than in England (29%), Scotland (30%) or Northern Ireland (30%).
Nearly one in four people (23%) in Wales lives in poverty – and it is on the rise among pensioners, single people and couples with children. There is concern that progress on child poverty has “stalled”.
Families whose members are in work are also at risk of poverty, with rising living and housing costs, cuts to working-age benefits and “poor quality jobs” blamed. Nearly half of lone parents still live in poverty (46%).
Wales has a population of around 3.1 million but 710,000 people are understood to be in poverty. This number includes 185,000 children, 405,000 working-age adults and 120,000 pensioners.
Nearly four out of 10 (39%) of disabled people are in poverty – the highest in the UK – compared to 22% of those without disabilities.
The think tank acknowledges that in the last 20 years Wales has “achieved real success reducing worklessness, increasing employment and radically improving adult skills”. But it warns that “thousands of people are locked out from this economic success”.
Today’s report warns that “children receiving free school meals are still substantially less likely to gain five or more good GCSEs than those who do not, meaning that they are much less likely to be able to gain higher qualifications and get a job which will enable them to avoid poverty as adults”.
Another warning sign is that “the majority of those in the poorest fifth in Wales are not building up a pension, increasing their risk of future poverty”. This compares with 72% of those in the richest fifth of the Welsh who have a pension.
Increased housing costs may be piling pressure on families. More than four out of 10 (42%) of the poorest fifth working-age adults in Wales spend more than a third of their income on housing costs, up from 36% in 1994-97.
The report also flags up that pensioner poverty in Wales stopped falling in 2010-13, and has “since increased while remaining stable in the rest of the UK”.
Victoria Winckler, director of the Bevan Foundation, said: “This report shows that too many households in Wales are really struggling to make ends meet. The stress and hardship of not having enough to live on blights people’s lives, whether they’re children or pensioners, and costs the public purse dearly.
“The Welsh Government have made a very welcome commitment to ‘prosperity for all’, so we hope that they will take steps to make it a reality for the 700,000 people in poverty today.”
Campbell Robb of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said: “Lowpaid, unstable jobs, rising living costs and insufficient benefits mean that many people in Wales are locked in a daily struggle to make ends meet.
“Poverty restricts the choices people can make, leaving families in impossible situations like choosing either to heat their home or pay their rent. We urge politicians in Cardiff Bay and Westminster to work with businesses to redesign the job and housing markets so they work better for those people living in the most deprived areas of Wales.”
The report comes on the heels of an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which also highlighted the increasing problem that work does not guarantee an escape from poverty.
It found that across the UK “57% of people in poverty are children or working-age adults living in a household where someone is in paid work” – up from 35% in 1994-95.
The IFS stated: “The major reason why paid work lifts households above the poverty line less reliably than in the past is simply that earnings growth in the UK has been so low since the early 2000s, and nonexistent overall since the recession – linked to our dismal productivity performance.”
Conservative Shadow Economy Secretary Russell George said: “After 19 years of devolution Welsh workers continue to endure the lowest takehome pay in Britain.
“We need to see action from the Welsh Labour Government to drive up standards and create quality jobs, but it’s difficult to have any faith after two decades and four major economic relaunches produced the such bleak results.
“Life can be a daily struggle for people on low wages, and it can be hard enough to keep up with the rising cost of essentials, let alone scrape enough savings together to get on the housing ladder.”
Plaid Cymru Leader Leanne Wood pressed for more powers for the Assembly, saying: “These figures vindicate Plaid Cymru’s case for giving our nation more control over its economy and show that Westminster doesn’t work for Wales.”
A spokeswoman for the Welsh Government said “preventing the scourge of poverty” was a “fundamental priority” and its Economic Action Plan, published in December, sought to increase the availability of good quality jobs.
She said further plans to support people including those furthest from the jobs market, to increase their employability would be published next month, while the government was working to secure the provision of affordable housing across Wales and had committed to delivering 20,000 new affordable homes by 2021.
“We are also investing unprecedented amounts, over £90m this year and a proposed further £187m over the next two years, through our Pupil Development Grant to improve outcomes for our disadvantaged learners to reduce the attainment gap,” she said.
“The answers to economic disadvantage require a joined-up response across all parts of government, and through our work that is what we are doing.”
SUCCESSIVE governments have clung to the idea that a job is the best way out of poverty.
You are radically less likely to be in poverty if you are in work. But worrying new research shows that in-work poverty is a pressing problem in modern Wales. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report on Welsh poverty highlights the impact of poor-quality jobs, rising living costs and reductions in working-age benefits.
The poverty rate it has calculated for the whole nation of 23% is deeply concerning. It remains higher than any of the other UK nations.
The report acknowledges that “great strides” were made in reducing poverty between 1994-97 and 2003-06, but argues these “look to be unravelling for several groups”.
Poverty is defined as living in a household in which the income is less than 60% of median average income after housing costs. There is great concern about the link between poverty and ill-health, relationship breakdowns and educational under-performance.
It is a sad irony that a nation that, rightly, prizes the principle of solidarity so dearly is beset with problems of poverty and inequality.
It is hard to overstate the importance of making Wales a home for well-paid jobs and of ensuring that our young people have the skills required to win such positions. Years of poor performance in international tests and our presence at the bottom of the UK earnings league table do not bode well.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies noted this week that the “major reason” why work lifts households out of poverty “less reliably” than before is that earnings growth has been “non-existent overall since the recession”.
Governments are right to strive to get people into work but this must be coupled with efforts to improve pay. The lack of pay progression for part-time workers is a glaring issue that must be tackled, and the gender pay gap is not only deeply unfair but a failure which leaves all members of a family worse off.
It is profoundly concerning that Wales has the highest rate in the UK of disabled people living in poverty (39%), and rising poverty among couples with children should set off alarms.
The UK is poised for a chapter of economic uncertainty next year when Britain formally leaves the EU; our workers are already at growing risk of poverty and intelligent and determined leadership is needed to secure prosperity.