Government Policies aimed at reducing poverty in the UK

Authors Avatar

Government policies have significant impact on reducing poverty. However in recent years Britain suffered from a recession leading to economic problems. Thus the effect their polices have require further analysis.

The most common way to measure poverty is by the Household below average income report. According to this report, a household earning less than 60% of the national median income is in poverty. It shows 20% of British children are in poverty. However in some parts it’s higher, such as Springburn, Glasgow where it is 50%.

One way the government tries to reduce poverty is through benefits. The child benefit is a universal benefit of £20.30 per week for all parents with a independent child (ren). However, this will be scrapped for anyone earning over £44 000 per year in 2013. This will save the government around £1 billion per year. However, according to the shadow treasury secretary Chris Leslie, “the current government plans … are unfair and highly bureaucratic.” This was shown when figures showed families with three children will lose around £2800 per year even if one parent is unemployed. Although this may not drive the family into poverty, it will have a significant effect on their standard of living. Critics argue this policy will be highly ineffective in reducing poverty.

Join now!

However, labour believed the best way to tackle poverty was to get people into employment. Thus came up with a policy to make employment more attractive. In 1998 the government introduced the National Minimum Wage (NMW) meaning employees could not be paid under a certain wage. The wage is adjusted every year and is currently sat at £6.08 per hour for over 21’s. However trade unions argue this is a “poverty wage” and demands an increase. However Ed Milliban argues “jobs must come before wage increase.” In 2001 it was suggested the NMW had achieved one of its goals by ...

This is a preview of the whole essay