Causes of poverty

• Lack of education


  • Unable to improve their lives as they could not get a good education to improve their employment opportunities
• Old Age


  • Elderly members of the family had to stay with members of their family, caused poverty as they were a drain on the family income and could not get a job
• Death of the breadwinner


  • The breadwinner was often the father, if he died the family had no income
• Large families


  • Due to lack of contraception, families struggled to feed all those in their care which led to poverty
• Lack of employment


  Families received no income which resulted in poverty
• Pay was extremely low


  Impossible for people to get out of poverty no matter how hard they worked
• Excessive gambling, drinking and smoking


  Money spent on these unnecessary things led to poverty