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UK poverty on rise: Report

Thursday, 26 February 2015 6:56 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 26 February 2015 7:02 PM ]

New report says millions of Britons will be in poverty by 2030.

A new report has predicted a bleak future for most Britons warning 14 million citizens will be in poverty by 2030.

The report by the think-thank Fabian Society warned that poverty in the UK will rise by an extra 3.6 million, including 1.2 million children, by 2030 unless drastic measures are taken by the government.

The report which draws on figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also said inequality in the UK will continue to rise, with wages of high income households rising 11 times faster than those on low incomes.

What are the reasons behind the growing poverty? In an interview with Press TV, Weyman Bennet from the London-based activist group United against Fascism cited three reasons.

“The first reason is that the people who are in work are on very low wages and their wage is not meeting their living requirements. The second reason is because the cost of housing is exorbitant as it has been recently privatized and has been no program of house building. And the third reason there has been something like a 25 percent cut in wealth benefits that have been used to target working poor instead of generally live in poverty."

He blamed the government for adopting wrong polices in dealing with the problem. According to Bennet, the coalition government has focused exclusively on new liberal policies that enrich the top one percent who have been doubling their income.

He further expressed regret for the bleak economic conditions in the country saying:

“In fact, what we have seen is reversal of wealth and the government policy has exacerbated this by remitting basic benefits rights and also forcing people into exorbitant rents and the Right to Buy program has just supported inflation cost of housing, so the coalition policy has actually contributed to this.”

JAS/MH

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