The present treatment of groups in poverty.

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ELAINE HOWLETT

THE PRESENT TREATMENT OF GROUPS IN POVERTY

Since coming into power in 1997 the New Labour Government have identified 5 different groups of people that are still living in poverty in Britain today.  They include the elderly, the low paid, unemployed, single parent families and the disabled.  They have also become aware of the fact that all 5 groups have one key thing in common; they are all reliant on some form of state benefit.  I decided to look more closely into the reasons why disabled people are still living in poverty in Britain today and what the present Government are doing to help them.  After all disabled people have been identified as being the real needy in British society since the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, surely after all this time this should still not be the case.

 In May 1997, Tony Blair became Prime Minister of Britain as Labour won a landslide victory in the general election; this saw the end of Conservative rule that had lasted for 18 years.  They refer to themselves, as New Labour as they have different views on how social policy making should be approached than the ‘Old’ Labour post-war Governments.  This has disappointed many people who were hopeful of a return to the ‘Welfarist’ approach of the post-war years.  New Labour however, claims that they are pursuing a new, radical approach, which they call the ‘Third Way’ or ‘Stakeholding’.  It is neither a Socialist or a New-Right approach but more of a compromise between the two.  The Third Way approach to social policy making can be identified as being as simple as a ‘hand up not a hand out’.  In simple terms this means that there should be enough money available for a reasonable standard of life for those who can’t genuinely help themselves and for people who can work encouragement to find a job.

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 As already identified disabled people are seen as one of the groups that still live in poverty in Britain today.  Government figures show that there are approximately 6 million people living in the UK with some form of disability, over 4 million of these people live in poverty, as they are dependant on state benefits as their main source of income.  Disabled people do not merely have lower incomes than non-disabled people; they also have extra costs associated with their disability.  They often need to spend more on heating, transport, aids and equipment, special diets and other costs.

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