poverty

• Poverty


  There is no agreement as to what we mean by poverty, meaning there is also controversy over the extent of poverty. Child Poverty Action Group argues that there are 3.5 million children in poverty in the UK; however, some Conservative politicians have denied that poverty still exists.
• Absolute poverty


  A lack of basic essentials needed to survive physically; adequate food, clothing, housing & fuel.
• Bradshaw - Absolute poverty


  Attempted to develop a budget standard of poverty. This tries to define a minimum acceptable income by calculating what is needed to afford an acceptable living standard based on a coasted list of items deemed as essential.
• Absolute poverty evaluation


  Critics argue absolute definitions only allow for a person's physical needs & take no account of what is needed to participate fully in society. It could be argued being able to fully take part in leisure activities such as holidays & outings, being able to buy presents for friends are seen as socially necessary by most people.
• Relative poverty


  Involves judging whether a person's income is so far below that expected by the majority of people in society that they are excluded from a normal lifestyle.
• Relative poverty evaluation


  The problem is agreeing what items should be included as being necessities without which a person should be regarded as being in poverty. Implies that what we define as poverty is not fixed, & that the poverty line in the UK will be much higher than India, etc because the majority of people have a much higher living standard in the UK. Critics argue it it impossible to ever eradicate relative poverty as some people will always be worse off than others & therefore arguably in relative poverty.
• Households Below Average Income (HBAI)


  Draws on data from official statistics. Defines low incomes as being below 60% of the median.
• HBAI Evaluation


  Criticised for being an arbitrary cut-off point. Critics argue that many people just below the 60% cut-off point are not so badly off that they should be defined as poor. HBAI statistics for 2012/13 show little change in levels of poverty in the UK since 2003; however, it can be argued that poverty has become more severe since the start of the recession following the banking crisis in 2008 - the Trussell Trust suggest 4.7 million people were in food poverty in 2014 compared to fewer than 26,000 in 2008/9.
• Consensual measure of poverty


  Method of measuring relative poverty which involved asking a series of representative focus groups which of a list of items they regarded as 'necessities'
• Consensual measure of poverty

  1. Items rated as necessities by 50% or more of respondents were included in a list

  2. Researchers carried out a living standards survey of a sample of the general population, asking them about how many of these necessities they had to go without because they could not afford them

  3. Households that lacked 3 or more necessities were counted as poor

  4. Households that went without 5 items were defined as in severe poverty
• In 2012, 33% of households were defined as suffering from multiple deprivation compared to 14% in 1983