The UK

Economy:
Poverty
Sanchit Agrawal 11H1

QUEEN ELIZABETHS BOYS SCHOOL, BARNET

Economics Project
January 2015

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THE UK ECONOMY: POVERTY

Contents
Types of Poverty............................................................................................................... 2
Measures of Poverty......................................................................................................... 3
Income Poverty Lines.................................................................................................... 3
Length of time in poverty.............................................................................................. 3
Other aspects of Poverty............................................................................................... 3
Other methods to measure poverty..............................................................................3
Poverty in the United Kingdom........................................................................................ 4
Causes of Poverty............................................................................................................ 5
Unemployment............................................................................................................. 5
Lack of Qualifications.................................................................................................... 5
Disability and Illness..................................................................................................... 6
Vulnerability within an age group.................................................................................6
Debt Trap...................................................................................................................... 7
Falling real wages/National minimum wage..................................................................7
Standard of Living............................................................................................................ 8
Limitations of using real GDP as a measure of Standard of Living................................8
Alternative ways to measure Standard of Living...........................................................9
The Human Development Indicator............................................................................10
What is the relationship between standard of living and poverty?................................11
What do you understand by the terms income and wealth?..........................................11
What is income inequality?............................................................................................ 12
How is income and wealth distributed in the UK?..........................................................12
What are the effects on the individual of poverty?........................................................14
What are the effects of poverty on the UK economy?....................................................15
Solutions to Poverty....................................................................................................... 16

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Types of Poverty
Poverty is the inability to afford goods and services necessary for survival.
Absolute Poverty: The lack of basic human needs, i.e. water, food, shelter, clothing,
etc., due to the inability to afford them, threatening the continued survival of the
individual. The World Band defines absolute poverty as living off an income that is
below $1.25 (PPP) per day.
There is a criticism with this definition of poverty as making it a discrete value means
that those who live off $1.24 a day are in absolute poverty whereas those who live of
$1.26 a day are not, which clearly is unfair.
Relative Poverty: A person faces relative poverty is they are considered poor in
relation to others in society. It is commonly defined as when one is earning below 60%
of the median income.
The main criticism with this is that someone may not be classed as being in relative
poverty anymore if the median wage falls despite no change in their income, meaning
that they still may face a lot of hardship.
Over the last few years, there has been a significant decline in absolute poverty
worldwide. According to the most recent estimates, in 2011, 17 percent of people in the
developing world lived at or below $1.25 a day. Thats down from 43 percent in 1990
and 52 percent in 1981. This means that, in 2011, just over one billion people lived on
less than $1.25 a day, compared with 1.91 billion in 1990, and 1.93 billion in 1981.
Extreme poverty in 2013:
37 million in China
322 million in India
405 million in Sub-Saharan Africa
In general, there is very little poverty above the Brandt line, with most of it being
concentrated around SE Asia, Africa and parts of South America.

1) Percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day, per UN data from 2000-2006

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Measures of Poverty
Income Poverty Lines
Poverty within the EU is generally measured using relative income poverty lines. This
involves working out average or median equalised household incomes in a country. A
poverty line is then set, being a percentage of the median income, ranging from 4070% but mostly 60% of the median household income. Those below 60% are said to be
at risk of poverty within the EU. The UK uses 60% as the poverty line.
One of the limitations of a relative income poverty line is that choosing a cut-off point is
a rather arbitrary process. It tells us what proportion of people are poor but does not
sufficiently take into account other factors that affect peoples situations such as how
far below the poverty threshold they are or the length of time they have been poor.

Length of time in poverty

Those below the at-risk-of-poverty line for several years would be in a much more
extreme situation than those who have only been in that situation for a short period of
time, meaning it is important to measure the length of time people have been in
poverty to measure persistence of poverty. However, this data covering several
consecutive years does not exist in the EU and other countries, limiting the ability to
use this as a measure.

Other aspects of Poverty

There are multiple other aspects of poverty that need to be considered, such as the
level of debt that the person is in, the level of unemployment and joblessness, the
extent of poor health or educational disadvantage, the number of people living in
inadequate housing and poor environmental conditions and the extent to which people
have inadequate access to public services.

Other methods to measure poverty

Looking at how social benefits (the welfare state) reduces poverty in efficient
systems it reduces poverty by 50% or more.
Measuring depravation identifying goods and services that are seen as basic
necessities in the country someone is living in, eg new clothes, adequate shoes,
heating, TV, social outings, etc. This essentially measures living standards.
The Budget Standard Approach poverty calculated on cost of specific basket of
goods and services chosen by experts to be basic necessities
The Food Ratio Method poor distinguished by proportion of income spent on
basic necessities like food/water, clothes, and shelter; generally, lower incomes
= higher proportion on basic necessities
The UN Poverty Index - combines measures such as life expectancy, literacy,
long-term unemployment and relative income into a single composite measure.
UNICEF Report Card on Child Well-Being combines indicators of material wellbeing, health and safety, educational well-being, family and peer relationships,
behaviours and risk and subjective well-being.
The best measure for the UK would be income poverty lines as it is the easiest to
measure and most commonly used in other countries too, so it is better for comparison.

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Poverty in the United Kingdom

The graph above shows a clear decline in the amount of relative poverty in the United
Kingdom from the mid-1990s to 2008. There has been a general decline in the level,
with a steep decline starting in 1997 from 27% of the population to 2001, with fewer
than 15% of the population. This number fell until 2008 and has risen now to 16.8%.
Official statistics show that 10.6 million individuals (16.8% of the population) were in
absolute poverty in the UK in 201213, measuring incomes before housing costs (BHC)
and using a poverty line equal to 60% of 201011 median income in real terms. This
was a fall of 200,000 individuals (0.5 percentage points) since 201112. Measured after
housing costs (AHC), 14.6 million (23.2%) were in absolute poverty, an increase of
600,000 individuals (0.8ppt).
There were significant falls in relative poverty between 200708 and 201213, using a
poverty line of 60% of median income. It fell by 1.3 million (2.8ppt) to 9.7 million
(15.4%) BHC and by 300,000 (1.5ppt) to 13.2 million (21.0%) AHC. This was driven by
pensioners and families with children. Low-income members of those groups get most
of their income from state benefits, and benefit entitlements were much more stable
than median income over this period.
27% percent of the children living in the UK today, 3.5 million, are in poverty. In some
areas this is as high as 70%, with lasting effects; those who received free school meals
(thus being in poverty) achieved 1.7 grades lower than their wealthier peers.
Relative poverty in the UK (2014): Earning below 15900pa (26,500 is median wage).

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Causes of Poverty
Unemployment
If more people lose jobs, then they would be losing their main source of income, relying
on just savings or benefits. This would increase poverty as they may not be able to buy
the basic necessities for survival. Those who have been unemployed for longer periods
of time also lose their skills in that area which means that they are unable to get a new
job easily as the required skills have been lost.
The

number of unemployed people is slowly reducing again in the last five years after the
recession which resulted in a large number of jobs being lost, which led to an increase
in poverty. Since then, poverty has been decreasing as more and more people become
employed.

Lack of Qualifications
Most high paid jobs require degrees, as there is a low supply of workers due to the
(often specialised) skills needed, meaning they are paid well. Therefore supply for
easier jobs is greater and thus they have lower pay due to lack of qualification or
specialised skill sets. If people have inadequate education they will be unable to gain
the skills needed to get a high paid job. In the US in 2010, 30% of those in poverty did
not finish high school, 15% had a high school diploma, 11% had some college
qualification and 5% had a
bachelors degree or
more.
The lower a young adult's
qualifications, the more
likely they are to be in
low-paid work. So, for
example, around half of all
employees aged 25 to 29
with no GCSEs at grade C
or above were paid less
than 7 per hour in 2010
compared to one in ten of
those with degrees or
equivalent. All levels of
qualifications appear to
make a noticeable difference compared with the level below.
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Disability and Illness

Obese people struggle to earn above the national average income, with less than half
of them earning above 20,000 per annum, with the largest
majority earning
between 10-15,000 per annum. An illness or
disability
prevents the ability to perform well in a job, or
not
at all, along with a negative perception
of them and obese workers being lazy,
which is often untrue. This results in a
lower disposable income, and thus
more poverty. They often have to
spend a lot of money on mobility,
carers,
etc., resulting in an even lower disposable
income.

Vulnerability within an age group

Children rely on their parents money to survive and pensioners do not have jobs, only
relying on a pension. 17% of those in poverty are children and 17% pensioners.
Pensions will be 148.40 per week or more in 2015, which is still very little and make it
hard to pay for food and rent, etc. Children rely on (single) parents/caregivers which
may be difficult for them to provide enough money for the children, who are not legally
allowed to work.

Need
money to
cover
basic
expenses
Take out
new loan
to cover
those
expenses

Get hit
with
hidden
charges
and fees

Take out a
loan

Unable to
pay it
back

Debt Trap
A debt trap is when people in debt take out loans to pay back other loans. 1/3 of people
experienced greater financial problems as a result of taking out a payday loan; 1/5
unable to pay it back in time and hit with high, hidden charges. 57% of people
needed to take out a new loan to pay back the old one, meaning they had to pay more
and more money, and have less for their own basic expenses. Around 2.4m children are
living in families with problem debt totalling almost 5bn [May 2014]
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Falling real wages/National minimum wage

If wages do not increase in line with inflation, households purchasing power will fall,
meaning ability to purchase basic goods and services is hindered, resulting in a fall in
the standard of living. Being in work may not take them out of poverty; people on low
wages like those on part time, minimum wage jobs may not earn enough money to pay
for living costs and other necessities. An ideal standard would be a living wage but this
is not legally enforceable.
Benefits and tax credits are supposed to act as a safety net but are too low to protect
families with children from poverty. Poverty trap those on low income discouraged
from working extra hours as income earned is taken away by taxes.
The graph below shows the national variation in wages. London earns by far the most
per
week in
comparison to
the rest of the UK,
however still has a
high
poverty rate
due to high cost
of living.

Standard of

Living

Standard of
the level of
material goods
available to a

Living refers to
wealth, comfort,
and necessities
certain socioeconomic group
a certain

in
geographical

area.

A simple method to
measure living
standards
is to use
real GDP
(which
accounts for inflation). If
real
GDP per capita
increases, the economy is producing and thus earning more, which means that the
workers would be better off, thus showing an improvement in living standards. The
main advantage is that it is the easiest timely figure to produce.

Limitations of using real GDP as a measure of Standard of Living

Quality of goods not considered
Cars today are of a much better quality than 80 years ago but prices have
fallen since then which shows as a fall in real GDP
Defence related expenditure
GDP higher in 1940 than in 1930 due to spending on defence but were
standards of living higher?
Externalities arent considered
If externalities increase with output, then living standards may not
increase
Regional Variations in income and spending

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National GDP figures hide significant regional variations in output,

employment and incomes per head of population; poverty or prosperity
within a region
Inequalities of income and wealth
GDP figures on their own do not show the distribution of income and the
uneven spread of financial wealth. Incomes and earnings may be very
unequally distributed among the population and rising national prosperity
can still be accompanied by rising relative poverty
Economic growth and externalities
Rising national output might have been accompanied by an increase in
pollution and other negative externalities which have a negative effect on
economic welfare. Output figures also tell us little about the quality of
goods and services produced
Leisure and working hours
Rising national output might have been achieved at the expense of leisure
time if workers are working longer hours
British workers have the longest working week in Europe, with full-time
workers putting in an average of 44 hours - three and a half hours longer
than the European average
The balance between consumption and investment
Faster economic growth might improve living standards today but lead to
an over-exploitation of scarce finite economic resources thereby limiting
future growth prospects.
The black economy and non-monetised sectors
GDP figures might understate the true living standards because of the
existence and growth of the black economy.
The black economy includes economic activity that goes unrecorded by
the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise. The non-monetised sectors of
the economy include output that is not sold at market prices but involves
barter trade, and self-consumed products.
The Economist's latest estimates for the total value of the black economy
throughout the world is $9 trillion. The scale of the underground economy
is estimated to average 15% of national output for rich economies and
33% of national output for emerging economies.
According to their survey, Nigeria and Thailand have the worlds largest
black economies, both accounting for more than 70% of official GDP

Alternative ways to measure Standard of Living

Ownership of consumer durables such as televisions, dish washers, home
computers
Estimates of pollution
levels
Measures of social
welfare - Home
ownership levels and
other indicators of
household wealth

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The number of patients per doctor - a measure of health provision in a country

Hospital waiting lists for important operations
The number of children per thousand of the population who die each year (infant
mortality rates)
The average food intake per person (measured by average calorific intake)
The proportion of the population that can read or write - literacy rates
average educational attainment at different age levels
Crime rates
Divorce Rates
Household income
Level of Education
Human Development Indicator probably most suited for UK as it is mature and
is used for a lot of countries.

The Human Development Indicator

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a number given to countries from 0 to 1 (higher
is better) used to compare different countries. It is published by United Nations
Development Program. It is used to rank countries based on their level of development.
The Human Development Index uses different measurements of a population:
Life expectancy at birth. This is used to see how healthy the people in one
country are. It assumes that healthier people live longer on average.
Literacy is used to look at how educated people are, for example how many
adults can read and write. One third of this is the gross enrollment ratio, which
measures how many of children of schooling age attend school.
Standard of living. This is measured using the real GDP per capita.

Advantages
It measures the extent at which GDP
has been used to enhance social
welfare
It combines longevity, education and
economic growth in equal thirds
It is made by the UNDP so it is
consistent for all countries

The UNDP is impartial so the rankings

are more likely to be fair

Disadvantages
Individual counties may fake their
data to look better
The 1/3 weighing seems arbitrary as
people argue GDP is the most
important factor
Doesnt take into account other
factors, like state of environment or
pollution or income inequality or
number of people with access to
mobile phones
Theres criticism related to how rigid
these weightings are as the IMF
argued that income has a diminishing
impact on human development, the
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richer a country becomes.

It is cheap to carry out as all the data
is available for each country already
from them

What is the relationship between standard of living and

poverty?
Generally, as the levels of poverty in an area increase, the standard of living decreases.
This is due to the fact that being in poverty means that you will be unable to afford
many goods and services due to a lack of money to spend. This means that people in
poverty might switch to inferior goods, which are of a lower quality or lack features, or
they might have to go without the product completely, eg TVs; maybe an old CRT TV in
poverty or even no TV, but a nice 55 4k TV if youre rich; you would have a high
enough disposable income to afford high quality goods and services which would
improve your standard of living.
The graph shows that the difference between satisfaction in the average low-income
country and the average G8 country is about 2.4, or a little less than a quarter of the
scale (which ranges from 0 to 10, with 0 representing the worst possible life and 10
representing the best possible life).

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What do you understand by the terms income and wealth?

Income: Income represents a flow of resources over a period of time, measuring the
receipt of money per period of time e.g. 200 per week. Income can be earned in
income (from employment) or unearned income (from inheritance, benefit payments
etc.)
Wealth: It is the term used to for the ownership of assets valued at a point in time and
it can be measured by reference to the following assets:

Shares
Bank deposits
Building society accounts
Buildings

Houses
Land
Currency holdings
Machinery and equipment

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What is income inequality?

Income inequality refers to the extent to which

income is distributed in an uneven manner
among a population. In the United Kingdom,
income inequality, or the gap between the rich
and everyone else, has grown at an alarming
rate. One factor contributing to income
inequality is that with increased economic
growth, businesses can make more profit which
is most often passed onto the shareholders,
etc., while the workers earn little or are even
fired and their places taken over by
technology, eg robotic arms, etc.

How is income and wealth

distributed in the UK?

The graph

above shows that over the last few years, the

richest 90th percentile have seen the largest
increase in their incomes while the 10th
percentile have seen only a small increase
comparatively. The richest few earn almost 5x
more than the poorest few, excluding the
extremes of the rich and poor, showing that
there is a massive disparity in income
distribution.

As seen in the graph on pg7, there is also a

massive disparity in the way income is spread
within the UK itself. The southeast earns the
most, especially in London, while the income
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further north is much lower, showing that there is also a large distribution of
income within the UK in terms of regions.

In

terms of wealth, there is a great level of

inequality, with
the

top 1%
owning
21% of the
wealth of the
UK; the
bottom
50% only
own 7%
of the

wealth. Studies
the

predict that by 2016,

top 1% of the worlds
population will own 50% of

the global wealth.

To be in absolute poverty, one must

earn less than $1.25 per day, and to
be in relative poverty, you must earn
below 60% of the UK median wage,
therefore earning less than 15,900
per annum in a household. But
above that you would not be classed
in poverty; therefore with a higher income in an area, there is lower absolute
poverty, and if income distribution is relatively even, then there would be
lower relative poverty too, however the median wage would increase too.
Despite being wealthy, you can be in poverty if you just rely on money from
assets that are made liquid without any income, you will be classed as being
in poverty as you have no income as such.

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What are the effects on the individual of poverty?

Homelessness

Homelessness is when you dont have a home to live in but being legally
homeless covers a broader spectrum as it is defined as if the place you live in is
unsuitable for you or if you have no legal right to live there then you are
homeless e.g. squatter homes.
The effects are that the individual in more likely to suffer from illness due to lack
of medicine, food and warm housing. It also means that they are a greater risk of
becoming dependent on drugs and/or alcohol. Furthermore, they are less
protected from physical violence as they dont have a home to protect them. It
can also lead to emotional breakdowns.

Effect on health

People are sick more and die younger

They have poorer hygiene and health as they can afford the goods or facilities
required to sustain their hygiene.
They have a higher rates of accidents and infections as they arent protected
from the outside world in their homes as they dont actually have homes
They have poor emotional health, get frightened more often and are insecure or
worried.
Furthermore, they have a 25% higher risk of experiencing severe ill-health and
disability before they reach middle age.
Children face a greater risk of developing meningitis, infections or asthma or
other respiratory problems.
They have a lack of money for healthcare, to prevent or treat illnesses, and
cannot afford a proper diet; they are malnourished.

Effect on education

Children suffer from poor health they are more absent from school which means
that they miss out on learning.
Good teachers dont want to go to violent areas or poverty stricken areas
therefore the quality of teaching in those areas is a lot lower for the people.
If parents are technically homeless they may not be able to support their childs
education as they cannot afford extra-curricular activities or tutoring.

Violence and crime

People with no reliable income may resort to stealing to get money due to few
qualifications.
Many people leave home at an early age but they have nowhere to go
Alcohol and drugs play a significant role in turning to crime.

Isolation

Children of poverty often find it hard to forge relationships due to their situation
this limits the extent of their support network for the rest of their lives and
impacts the ability to build relationships with colleagues/ at job interviews.
Stigma attached to those who are poor leads to social deprivation.

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Poverty cycle
This is a set of factors/events by which poverty, once started, is likely to continue
unless theres outside intervention.
Families have been trapped in this for at least 3 generations.
40% of children born into poverty remain in poverty through their life in the UK

What are the effects of poverty on the UK economy?

Reduction in quantity/quality of labour

Generally people in poverty dont have an adequate education therefore they

dont have many skills of qualifications.
This reduces the quality of the work force as they only have the skill set to carry
out basic tasks which arent of much use to the UK economy; low skilled tasks.
People may choose to go on benefits instead of working as there isnt an
incentive to work as they get enough from being on benefits that working. This
reduces the quantity of labour in the UK economy which causes aggregate
demand to fall which reduced economic growth.
If more people chose not to work then it also undermines one of the UKs
macroeconomic objectives of full employment.

Social costs - Urban decay

Increased homelessness and crimes due to poverty makes certain areas of the
country less desirable to live in.
This deters potential foreign investment as that urban decay sheds a negative
light on the area.
Lower investment and development in the area will cause aggregate demand will
fall which will decrease economic growth.
If there is an increase in crime, more money will have to be spent policing those
areas and the opportunity cost of that is that, that money could have been used
to benefit the welfare states of improve infrastructure in the country.

Budget deficit

If more people are in poverty then they wont be working which will mean that
the UK missed out on tax revenue.
Also, increased benefit payments cost the UK economy 13 billion a year. This
represents an opportunity cost as that money could be spent elsewhere to
improve the economy.

Lower economic growth

A higher number of people in poverty means that consumption will decrease as

they dont have a high enough disposable income to buy goods and services. A
fall in consumption leads to a fall in aggregate demand.
This also results in an increase in unemployment; labour is a derived demand.

Income inequality

This is one of the UKs macroeconomic objectives, high levels of poverty will
undermine it.

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Reduction in Potential Output

A high number of people in poverty will result in a workforce that has fewer skills
and is less educated, which results in a decrease in productivity, one of the
factors of production
If people are not taking an active part in the labour force, a waste of scarce
resources is represented
The productive capacity of the UK decreases, which shifts AS left and decreases
Eco Growth

Solutions to Poverty

It is a lot more effective to tackle the causes of poverty rather than to spend
money to reduce the effects of poverty as then there would not be any money
spent in the first place as the people being helped would not be in poverty;
therefore the money could be used on improving the infrastructure, etc.
Prevention also avoids the unpopularity of income redistribution while
preventing the suffering in the first place.

Raising the national minimum wage

Lowest paid workers would see a significant increase in their weekly income.
Unemployed would be encouraged to join the labour market as the higher wages
pose an incentive to work
One advantage is that it does not cost the government anything as they do not
have to spend any money on their half to increase the national minimum wage
However it does not really help those on JSA and incapacity benefits, while also
increasing unemployment as there would be a higher Cost of Production for
businesses. It may also cause an increase in levels of inflation
The minimum wage rate has been steadily increasing over the last five years for
all the groups.

Progressive Taxation

Increasing progressive taxes such as the higher rate of income from 40% to 45%
will take more income from those on high income levels
This enables cuts in regressive taxes and increased benefits which help the
income of the poor

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This allows for a lot more income equality, one of the governments
macroeconomic objectives
However this is politically unfair; just because you earn more money does not
mean its fair to take more of it away as you must have worked very hard for it.

Tax credits

Tax credits are at the heart of the governments strategy to tackle poverty and
are payments from the government for those responsible for at least one child or
on low incomes
They help to increase the income of those on poverty which means that they can
afford basic necessities
However they cost a lot of money from the government which increases the
budget deficit

Benefits

The benefits system provides

practical help and financial support
if you are unemployed and looking
for work, giving you additional
income when earnings are low or
are responsible for bringing up
children, care for someone, are
disabled or ill; the main type is JSA
as well as income support, child
related benefits, housing benefits
and winter fuel allowances
Raising benefits can benefit the
poorest sections of society and
reduce income inequality
However this not only costs the
government a lot of money,
159bn in 2011-12, but also
creates a disincentive to work as people would rather not work

Welfare reforms

A new radical Universal Credit system would be introduced which would support
people both in and out of work, replacing working tax credit, child tax credit,
housing benefit, income support, income based JSA, etc.
It would be advantageous as all those who go back into work would be better off,
meaning that more people would be willing to work, shifting AS to the right
However it would take a long time to implement and result in a lot of
administrative fees, which would be mostly one-off fees

Pension Reform

Increasing the pension age, which has now increased to 68

Means that government has to pay less in pension as the pension payments are
delayed for another few years per person
However this would be unpopular for those who just want to retire or are too old
to work
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Investing in Education

Education can reduce poverty as greater education leads to greater earning

potential, which improves economic growth and thereby economic opportunities
and incomes, while bringing wider benefits like improved development, lower
child fertilisation rate, improved health care of children, etc.
It is important to invest in education to reduce poverty, while also ensuring that
the quality of education is high
On the demand side, this can be achieved most easily through reductions in cost
of schooling e.g. abolishing school fees, or subsidies to attend school
On the supply side, it is important to build enough schools in rural areas to
provide adequate resources, or increasing school leaving age recently to 18
The advantage is that it is preventative, so people would not be in poverty in the
first place
However, it has a time lag of 15-20 years
with only an immediate effect of worsened
budget; and it is expensive where will the
money come from?
A shift in the labour market towards lowerpaid jobs, combined with an increase in the
tax-free personal allowance, has reduced
the flow of money into government coffers
from income tax receipts. While nominal
GDP growth has averaged 2.4 per cent
between 2007/08 and 2013/14, income tax
receipts have grown just 0.1 per cent per
year on average during the same period.
The graph on the right shows the
spending on education; over the
last few years it has risen
considerably as it is one of the
most important supply side
policies.

Charities

There are many charities in the UK

who work with others to overcome
poverty and suffering
Most charities are concerned with
providing food, water, clothing and
shelter
Barnardos runs 415 vital projects, helping over 100,000 vulnerable children,
young people and families
They protect childrens well-being and mental health, and provide long term
emotional support and essentials

The effectiveness of a policy can be assessed by its cost, impact on the very
poorest of families and the effects on incentives to work and save.

There are a lot of ethical issues surrounding poverty and the alleviation of
poverty. One of the largest is the fact that there will always be relative
pg. 18

SANCHIT AGRAWAL 11H1

THE UK ECONOMY: POVERTY

poverty in the UK; so the government should not spend money on it but
rather spend it elsewhere. Another is the fact that the benefit system
encourages joblessness; should they not be abolished?

pg. 19