22% of people in the UK are currently experiencing poverty. The poverty gap is deepening and destitution rates, particularly for children, have reached obscene highs.
Poverty can have life-long consequences for individuals and is both a cause and a symptom of our broken economy. Those facing poverty are more at risk of experiencing poorer physical and mental health, while facing exacerbated barriers to accessing services and compounding pressure on the NHS. Children in poverty are additionally impacted in education, performing lower on average throughout school and affecting later career opportunities.
The risk of falling below the poverty line is shockingly uneven across groups. Single parent families (90% headed by women), families whose working hours are affected by childcare, many groups minoritised by ethnicity, disabled people, unpaid carers and renters are all facing disproportionately high levels of poverty.
We cannot continue to paper over these cracks with volunteer-run food banks while cutting taxes for the wealthy and maintaining financially debilitating policies like the two-child benefit cap. By implementing measures that would lift people out of poverty, we can produce a sustainable economy that stops rewarding the rich for being rich, and punishing everyone else.
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End the two-child limit, reform child benefit and tax credit cap to make it work for and commit to increasing child benefit over time
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Increases for all benefits in line with inflation to ensure they rise with costs
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Restore Disability benefit to 2010 levels and reform the assessment process.
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Fully ban DSS refusals, for private landlords and insurance companies
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Tie local housing allowance to local rents
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End no recourse to public funds
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End sanctions, increase the UC earnings threshold inline with inflation, end the benefit cap and increase universal credit to £120 per week - the minimum needed to cover essentials in the UK