London’s poor facing squeeze amid housing-benefit cuts, By Anthony Faiola, June 20, 2011, Washington Post: “The choice of the London A-list, St. John’s Wood is a neighborhood of ethereal wealth, its leafy avenues lined with the ample mansions of Paul McCartney, Ewan McGregor and Kate Moss. And yet, they share the most unlikely neighbors – the Kastrati family. Poor immigrants struggling to survive in one of the world’s most expensive cities, the family of four nevertheless lives in a sunny, two-bedroom flat in an enclave of urban privilege. Their benefactor: the British government, which covers 85 percent of their $3,600-a-month rent through welfare benefits giving tens of thousands of low-income earners access to even the best neighborhoods. But the clock on such subsidized London lifestyles is suddenly running out. The Conservative-led government is rolling out Britain’s most sweeping welfare reform since the 1940s, taking aim at the ballooning bills in cities such as London, where a few families receive as much as $160,000 a year to ensure economic diversity and quality housing for the poor in some of the priciest districts in the world. Yet as benefits are rolled back, academics are warning of a major side effect: an exodus of the poor from central London in numbers not seen since the demolition of soot-caked Dickensian slums in the 19th century…”
Tag: Britain
Welfare Reform – Britain
- Britain begins welfare overhaul, By Sarah Lyall, February 17, 2011, New York Times: “The British government on Thursday introduced legislation that it said would simplify and reduce the cost of the country’s welfare system, saying that it wanted to change a culture in which people on welfare risk losing income if they find jobs. Calling his proposals ‘the most ambitious, fundamental and radical changes to the welfare system since it began,’ after World War II, Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech here that they were based on a simple idea: ‘Never again will work be the wrong financial choice…'”
- Welfare reform: Find a job or lose benefits, mothers to be told, By Patrick Wintour, February 17, 2011, The Guardian: “All stay at home mothers claiming the government’s new universal credit will be required to make themselves available for work or lose state support, putting them on a par with single parents for the first time. The requirement would apply to mothers with children aged over seven. The proposals came in the government’s welfare bill published on Thursday and were hailed by David Cameron as ‘tough, radical … but fair’. His remarks came as ministers published a raft of figures alongside the bill, for the first time showing the full impact of the introduction of universal credit and other welfare cutbacks announced by ministers. The figures show 1.7m households will lose out from the universal credit reforms…”
- Welfare reform: ‘most radical shake-up for 60 years’, By Randeep Ramesh, February 17, 2011, The Guardian: “Iain Duncan Smith’s radical welfare bill, perhaps the most significant reshaping of the welfare state in 60 years, aims to simplify the system of subsidies that covers everything from income support to housing benefit to sickness payments. For the government the aim is to remove the benefit traps that see some people lose 90p in every extra pound they earn as means-tested benefits are withdrawn. The new system will be paid for by deep cuts in welfare, as ministers push through savings of £18bn over the next four years. There are signs of an unseemly rush to push through the bill, with details on a new child maintenance scheme published two months before a consultation on the issue is finished…”
Income and Health Inequalities – Britain
- Poorest in England ‘live seven years less on average’, By Jane Dreaper, February 11, 2010, BBC News: “People in England’s poorest areas live an average of seven years less than those in the richest ones, says a major report on health inequalities. Epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot, says the NHS must spend much more on preventing illness. And he calls for an increase in the minimum wage to allow everyone to have a healthy lifestyle. Health Secretary Andy Burnham has welcomed the government-commissioned report and said more work was needed. The Marmot Review shows that although life expectancy has risen in poor and rich areas, inequalities persist…”
- Well-off people ‘live seven years longer than those in poorer groups’, By Kate Devlin, February 11, 2010, The Telegraph: “Ministers must act to reduce the gulf between rich and poor, the review, commissioned by the Department of Health, says. Targets to raise life expectancy should be set across each different social class, and updated every 10 years, it recommends. It also suggests parents should be able to share a year of paid leave after having a child, at a level high enough to sustain a healthy life. Action is needed to improve the health of all, according to the report by Prof Sir Michael Marmot, from University College London, but particular attention should be paid to those on the bottom rungs of the social ladder…”