Poverty is rife in the world’s fifth largest economy. The United Nations sent Special Rapporteur Professor Philip Alston to the UK in November to report on the poverty crisis. His observations were damning. “14 million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty. Four million of these are more than 50% below the poverty line, and 1.5 million are destitute, unable to afford basic essentials.”
Conclusions of the Report
The UN’s Special Rapporteur is firmly of the opinion that “…many of the problems could readily be solved if the Government were to acknowledge the problems…” and consider some of his recommendations. These included:
- Introduction of a single poverty and food security metric.
- Reversal of regressive tax and spending measures.
- Increased funding for local government measures to tackle poverty at community level.
- Less punitive approach to welfare reforms.
- Elimination of the 5-week benefits payment delay that is being rolled out as part of the Universal Credit reforms.
The professor suggests that the departure of the UK from the EU could be an opportunity to introduce policies that remove the economic burden being borne by the UK’s most vulnerable citizens. (Although Brexit’s cheerleaders clearly have the opposite in mind).
The Kanndoo Project
We broadly agree with UN Special Rapporteur about the increased poverty in the UK. And undoubtedly some measure of government funding is going to be needed to reverse the trend. However, we are not prepared to wait around and hope that some post-Brexit enlightened government will introduce much-needed legislation. Something needs to be done now.
Our Aims
Kanndoo is an apolitical organisation. Our aims are not subject to the whims of party politics. We intend to help people escape the sort of poverty described in the UN report.
Follow us on Twitter to stay up-to-date with how our project is progressing.
Read the full UN report on extreme poverty in the UK.
