Poverty (relative of course) is almost at a record low.

Living standards have been declining since 2003…not since 2010.

Fewer working adults were in poverty in 2011/12 than in 2008/09 under Labour.

Child poverty is lowest for 25 years.

Pensioner poverty at lowest in decades.

 

 

 

Funny…none of those are the attention grabbing headline message from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the BBC.

The BBC of course chose a headline that, by coincidence I’m sure, parallels the Labour line on living standards.

Most people classed as being in poverty ‘have job’

 

But the reason for the ‘rise’ in poverty amongst working people is in fact a good one…pensioners are being  taken out of poverty….it isn’t that more working people are in poverty…because as said, there are fewer in poverty in 2011/12 than in 2008/09….yet more good news…no?

That rather important fact isn’t relayed to us by the BBC…which totally alters the way things can be perceived.

 

Way, way down in a BBC article on a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on poverty comes this:

The overall poverty rate in the UK expressed as a proportion of the population was 21% – the second lowest since reliable official statistics began to be collected in the mid-1990s

 

What?  The poverty rate is the 2nd lowest on record? Why would the BBC try to bury that good news?

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the New Policy Institute which produced this report are both progressive, campaigning organisations…something that the BBC should mention and then reflect in the way it reports the ‘facts’….but it doesn’t…instead jumping on board that progressive bandwagon and producing a highly misleading interpretation of that report.

 

The BBC eventually also reports this…‘child poverty was at its lowest level for 25 years.’…but again half way down the page and only a passing mention.

If child poverty had been up you can guarantee it would have been the headline.

or this:  ‘the number of pensioners living in poverty had fallen to its lowest level in decades.’

Again not a headline.

 

and there’s this from the JRF...

Incomes for the poorest 10% have been falling for much longer, since 2004/05.

So that confirms what Rafael Behr said in the New Statesman…that the ‘Living standards crisis’ began under Labour a decade ago.

or as the report itself admits:

What is noticeable about in-work poverty is how it began to rise around 2003/04,after being fairly static for the previous five or so years.

 

and…

The Sunday Times reports that (In a massive headline):

Child Poverty is at lowest for 25 years

From the JRF itself:

Between 2007/08 and 2011/12, the number of children in poverty on the relative measure fell by around 500,000.

 

 

 

And yet the BBC highlight something else completely…a Labour narrative once again…

 

Most people classed as being in poverty ‘have job’

More working households were living in poverty in the UK last year than non-working ones – for the first time, a charity has reported.

Just over half of the 13 million people in poverty – surviving on less than 60% of the national median (middle) income – were from working families, it said.

 

But why has that happened?  What has made the difference in proportions?

One reason is that pensioners, obviously ‘out of work’, are statistically rising out of poverty, therefore ‘increasing’ the proportion of those who are  in work but who are in poverty relative to those out of work:

From the JRF:

The fall in poverty among those in workless and retired families is obviously related to the fall in pensioner poverty.

 

Kind of alters the perception of things….the BBC vaguely notes the connection in a side panel…‘The proportions of poor people have also been affected by the rapidly reducing rates of pensioner poverty.’…..but it is a crucial fact that undermines the whole thrust of the article and should be highlighted.

 

And just how many working adults are in low pay?

 

 

 

The BBC tells us….the number of working poor has steadily been rising for years.

But hang on….the report tells us that there are 3,060,000 working adults in poverty in 20011/12…..but in 2008/09 there were 3,500,000 working adults in poverty.

 

So there were more working adults in poverty in 2008/09 than 20011/12…and yet we’re told there are more in poverty now.

 

Hardly fits with Labour’s narrative of the poverty stricken poor under the Coalition.

More were in poverty under Labour.

 

And…

It’s a curious concept being marketed here…the government, and the Public, expect people to work for a living if possible…Labour and the JRF  seem to think otherwise….life on the dole pays better……….because having a job doesn’t lift you out of poverty, relative poverty that is, then perhaps you shouldn’t bother working….from Peter Kenway, the author of the report:

‘It suits politicians of all parties to claim that work is the route out of poverty. Such a message wraps a snarling toughness directed at workless adults inside a saccharine justification: you must work for the sake of your kids.’

And Julia Unwin from the JRF tells us that:

‘Hardwork is not working’

The BBC joins in too:

Get a job has long been the mantra of ministers….And while work is the best way out poverty, it’s no longer a guarantee, it seems.

 

Actually the message is you must work to earn a living, and not just take from those who do work.