New Report: Over a Million People in Destitution: Debt, Delays, and Sanctions Make People, “Humiliated” “Degraded” and “Demeaned.”

Homeless Total on the Rise. 

The government never tires of saying that they prefer work to welfare.

Iain Duncan Smith built his career on the assertion.

He also claimed to believe in social justice and compassion – something he failed to show in his many years of office until his self-serving resignation came about.

There are have been a number of assessments of the Minister’s term in office.

Phillip Collins, in the latest Prospect  magazine shreds his reputation to pieces (Iain Duncan Smith: the quest of a quiet man.)

This, amongst many other indictments,  stands out.

Duncan Smith regularly claims that Britain’s fine record of job creation since 2010 is attributable to his welfare reforms but no impartial observer takes his claim especially seriously. It is hard to do so when there has been almost no welfare reform to assess. The Work Programme was designed to help older people and the long-term unemployed into work. Last year, the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee pointed out that 70 per cent of those people enrolled have failed to find long-term employment. The principal effect of replacing Incapacity Benefit with Employment Support Allowance (ESA) was that tens of thousands of claimants were reassessed as fit for work despite serious doubts that they were able to do so. The waiting list for the capability assessment stretches into the hundreds of thousands. Of those decisions that go to appeal, 40 per cent are overturned. The number of disabled people returning to work has been falling.

But this stands out even more:

More than a million people in UK living in destitution, study shows

Research by Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds 668,000 households unable to afford essentials such as food, heating and clothes.

Reports the Guardian.

More than a million people in the UK are so poor they cannot afford to eat properly, keep clean or stay warm and dry, according to a groundbreaking attempt to measure the scale of destitution in Britain.

A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found that 184,500 households experienced a level of poverty in a typical week last year that left them reliant on charities for essentials such as food, clothes, shelter and toiletries.

More than three-quarters of destitute people reported going without meals, while more than half were unable to heat their home. Destitution affected their mental health, left them socially isolated and prone to acute feelings of shame and humiliation.

Although the study could not demonstrate that destitution had increased in recent years, it said this would be a plausible conclusion because of related evidence showing austerity-era rises in severe poverty, food bank use,homelessness and benefit sanction rates.

…

The most common causes of destitution were unsustainable debt repayments to public authorities such as council tax arrears, together with high rents and benefit delays and sanctions. These triggered financial shocks that pushed already poor households into periods of severe poverty often lasting months.

Nearly four-fifths of people who fell into destitution in 2015 were born in the UK, with younger single men most at risk. Migrants, who face restricted access to jobs and benefits, were disproportionately likely to become destitute.

High destitution rates were found in former industrial areas in the north-west and north-east of England, Scotland, south Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as inner London. These areas typically had high unemployment and above average levels of long-term sickness and disability.

Detailed interviews with 80 destitute people found that 30% had benefits sanctioned. More than half of this group directly linked the “abrupt impact” of having their benefits stopped with being unable to afford basic living essentials.

Here is the original:

Destitution in the UK

Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Glen Bramley, Filip Sosenko, Janice Blenkinsopp, Sarah Johnsen, Mandy Littlewood, Gina Netto and Beth Watts

Posted on27th Apr 2016

This report defines destitution in the UK, looking at how many people are affected, who they are, and the main pathways in and out of destitution. It looks at the impact and experience of those people directly affected.

DESTITUTION IN THE UK Despite rising concern, there is a lack of robust evidence on the causes, scale, trends and experience of destitution in the UK. This study sought to find out how many people are destitute, and how this experience has affected them.

Key points: • The general public considers people to be destitute when they cannot afford to buy the essentials to eat, stay warm and dry, and keep clean.

• About 1,252,000 people, including 312,000 children, were in this situation in the UK at some point during 2015.

• While some migrant groups face disproportionate risks of destitution, the great majority (79 per cent) of those destitute were born in the UK. • Destitution is not usually a one-off, transient episode, but occurs in a context of severe poverty and hardship over a considerable period of time.

• The key triggers pushing people in poverty into destitution include debt repayments (usually to public authorities); benefit delays and sanctions; high living costs; and, for some migrants, extremely low levels of benefits and lack of access to the UK labour market.

• People affected by destitution feel ‘demeaned’, ‘degraded’ and ‘humiliated’ by having to seek help with basic material needs like food, clothes and toiletries from charitable organisations, friends or family.

This is particularly affecting:

Experiences and impacts:

Going without food was very commonly experienced, reported by 76 per cent of destitute service users, followed by lacking clothes and/or shoes suitable for the weather (71 per cent) and access to toiletries (63 per cent).

56 per cent of destitute service users reported that they had been unable to heat their home, and 30 per cent that they had been unable to light their home. A large proportion of both the migrant (37 per cent) and UK-complex needs groups (41 per cent) had recently slept rough.

Destitute parents emphasised that they put their children’s needs ahead of their own (although we were not able to interview children themselves), however they also frequently discussed the negative effects of destitution on parent–child relationships.

Other key themes included the additional necessities ill-health created for many destitute households, the importance of being able to cover transport costs in circumstances where walking is not always a viable option, and the critical role played by mobile phones as a lifeline to stay in touch with family and official processes.

The sustained or cyclical nature of destitution frequently took a toll on people’s mental health, and also sometimes their physical health. Social isolation was very often reported, associated with the shame engendered by destitution, as well as by an inability to pay for normal social activities.