Child poverty: Definition could include family breakdown, November 15, 2012, BBC News: “Family breakdown, drug addiction, debt and education results are among the factors that could be used to measure child poverty in future, ministers say. Recent figures showed fewer children in poverty – but largely because falling wages have narrowed the gap between the poorest and average earners. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith says this income-based method of measuring poverty is too simple. He is launching a consultation on how to include other factors. But Labour suggested that the government was trying to ‘distract attention’ from ‘rather bleak’ trends in child poverty data…”
Tag: United Kingdom
Fuel Poverty in the UK
Fuel poverty figures show decrease, but are expected to rise again, By Hilary Osborne, May 17, 2012, The Guardian: “The number of UK households in fuel poverty fell in 2010, but rising energy bills and the reduction of funds for energy efficiency measures mean the fall is likely to be short lived, experts have warned. Figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change showed that the number of households spending more than 10% of income on fuel to maintain an adequate temperature, the official definition of fuel poverty, fell by 750,000, or 11%, in 2010 to a total of 4.75 million. Despite the fall, one in five households across the UK remained in fuel poverty, and consumer groups pointed out that a £150 increase in average bills since the period the figures cover mean many more people may have been pushed back into difficulties…”
Black Unemployment in the UK and US
Black people more likely to be jobless in Britain than US, research reveals, By Randeep Ramesh, April 12, 2012, The Guardian: “Black people in Britain are more likely to be unemployed than those in the United States, especially during recessions, with successive UK governments ‘failing to protect minority ethnic groups’, research reveals. A paper presented on Friday at the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Leeds shows that in the last three recessions, unemployment among black British men was up to 19 percentage points higher than among those in America. Yaojun Li, professor of sociology at Manchester University, told the conference that in Britain black male unemployment reached 29% in the early 1980s recession, 36% in the early 1990s and 22% in 2011. Unemployment figures for black men in the US were 22%, 17% and 22%…”