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Gifts from The Morning Star
Women who know the poor challenge the politicians who don’t
BOB HOLMAN recommends a new report confronting some of the stereotypes about poverty by talking to those who are on the front line

In 1943, in the midst of war, eight women published a book about poverty called Our Towns: A Close-Up which became a best-seller. The war-time study stemmed from the evacuation of over a million mainly working-class people in 1939.

I was one of them. The evacuees drew many complaints in the mainly country places. They were dirty, flea-ridden, inadequately clothed and badly behaved. The evacuees were often poor, for which their lazy, incompetent parents were blamed. 

The Women’s Group on Public Welfare set up a committee of eight professional women to investigate the evacuation. Significantly, they all knew about poverty at first hand and deduced that it was poverty which led to the evacuees apparent deficiencies. They then went to the poor neighbourhoods and argued that society imposed poverty on the residents.

Structural poverty needed structural reforms. They proposed public housing, nursery schools, a minimum wage, children’s allowances, price control of basic commodities and a national medical service. The book was a sell-out, received enormous coverage and helped secure middle-class support for better services brought about by the post-war Labour government.

Seventy years later in 2013, nine women, all of whom were close to the poor, joined together to write a similar account. They included leader of the Easterhouse Citizens Advice Bureau Loretta Gaffney, Audrey Flannagan who runs a foodbank in Glasgow, children’s writer and carer of young people Josephine Feeney, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, social work practitioner and teacher Karen Postle, Sally Young from Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service, social policy activist Fran Bennett, voluntary-sector worker Jo Tunnard and community development worker Tricia Zipfel.

Their report, which has recently been published, is about poor people whom they know and visit. Unlike many politicans who condemn the poor from their background of wealth and privilege, the women talk about those they see regularly.

Their report Our Lives: Challenging Attitudes to Poverty in 2015 has been written in a society in which welfare is being undermined, if not destroyed. It comes out at a time when the Conservative Party has promised another £12 billion to be taken from welfare. Incredibly, even the Labour opposition is largely in agreement. Shadow secretary for work and pensions Rachel Reeves, who is a former economist for the Bank of England, declared: “We are not the party for people on benefits …not for the unemployed.”

Five main conclusions emerge from the people who know the poor. First, the poor are not to blame.

For example, there’s Colin, who is 23. On being assessed briefly, he came over as a druggie, lazy, not wanting to work.  But the author who records his case really knew him.

As a child he was in public care where he suffered abuse. He had no lasting relationships, turned to drug misuse, got a girl pregnant. Now he dwells in a tower block with no friends. Having paid his bills, which includes money to the Child Support Agency, he has just £30 for food, clothes, everything. He is in debt. He has undertaken work experience which leads to mainly unpaid work. With little education, he has not much chance of getting a job. He has difficulty in reading and finds job application forms a real problem. He does not own a computer so cannot apply online.

The system blames him. In fact the system has failed him.

Second, people’s benefits are not sufficient. The government cuts welfare but refuses to admit that benefits are not sufficient for a decent lifestyle.

This is well illustrated by the author who helps run a foodbank. One woman had managed to feed her three children, but she could not afford their school clothing. She felt she had to buy their uniforms and then had to approach the foodbank. Third, the problems are getting worse. One woman known to one of the authors has been a care worker for the elderly for 20 years.  Her latest position is a zero-hours contract. She says: “The other Sunday I worked for six hours but only got paid for three” — because she does not get paid for time travelling between clients. She adds: “This means I am paid less than the minimum wage.” Her husband works full-time on a low wage. She continues: “At the end of most months our outgoings are now bigger than what is coming in.”

Further, it is making family life harder. “Planning my work around my kids is incredibly difficult. I want to be there for them but at the same time I can’t afford  to turn down work when it is around.”

So much for Iain Duncan Smith saying that preserving family life is essential. Fourth, poverty is something to be punished — just like in the workhouse.

Chris was on jobseeker’s allowance (£8.20 a day). He was due to meet his adviser but because of road works his bus arrived 10 minutes late. He was told he should have phoned. In fact he could not afford money for his phone. He was sanctioned for a  month. The writer, who knew him well, explained that he lived with his mother who had chronic arthritis and had had recent hip replacement operations. The withdrawal of Chris’s money meant he had to approach the foodbank.

These punishments are now common — 80,000 in Scotland alone. Fifth, the cases illustrate a decline in the attitudes of some officials towards those in need. Before blaming them, it must be said that they are under pressure to treat users in the same condemnatory way as the government. 

Remember the Social Fund? Not much of it left. This provides interest-free loans for needy people on social security. If rejected, they could appeal and people like me could accompany them. Sometimes the helpful social security officials would advise me on what best to say. We usually won. Today voluntary workers do not feel welcomed. The report is full of accounts of people in social distress who are blamed for their sufferings.

It is not an academic study, not a speech composed by political experts. But it is about reality. Like the authors of 1943, those of 2015 come up with proposals for better welfare services to tackle social deprivation, to improve housing, to raise benefits and wages and to control prices. But they go beyond this with suggestions for the ordinary people who read the report. They should “use the stories in their own work to raise awareness and counter the myths about ‘scroungers’.” 

They should “use the report alongside academic studies about poverty, helping to bring out the stories behind the statistics” and “challenge local and national politicians to explain their views of poverty and to say how they will include people in poverty in shaping their proposals for change.”

And different from  nearly all other reports. This one is about  concerned peope who not just  visit those in need but also make close, enduring and reciprocal friendships with them.

  • Our Lives: Challenging Attitudes to Poverty in 2015 is available free from ryantunnardbrown.com/publication.
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