For £15 an hour, end zero hours, scrap all benefit caps
Louie Nardini, York Socialist Party
Poverty is increasing and hitting vulnerable parts of society, recent government statistics show. In the year up to March 2025, over 13 million people were struggling in ‘relative’ poverty – defined as living in households with less than 60% of the median income. The number of pensioners within this has increased by 200,000, showing the callousness of Starmer’s, now U-turned, scrapping of universal winter fuel payments.
Due to changes in the calculation methods, previous years’ statistics have been revised. The figures show that since Keir Starmer assumed office in July 2024, 500,000 more people are living in poverty.
The figures show that the first year of the Starmer government has not lived up to the hopes of many of the people who voted for it, aiming to get rid of the Tories’ policies. Child poverty levels are much the same as they were under the Tories – little wonder when Starmer has had to be pushed by the anger of thousands to finally get rid of the two-child benefit cap. Starmer is in power, seeking to serve the same interests as Rishi Sunak before him – the super-wealthy bosses. The removal of the two-child benefit cap could help to alleviate 450,000 children from poverty by 2030. But with the incoming cost-of-living crisis we need more action immediately.
Reform UK has recently changed its mind and would now re-impose the two-child benefit cap. Ex-Tory minister and now a potential Reform chancellor Robert Jenrick claims the party will generate growth by weeding out those who are supposedly “choosing a life on benefits”. Its ‘shadow cabinet’ of newly minted Conservatives will likely reintroduce the same two-child benefit cap that they pushed in 2017. To cut across the failures of the establishment parties we need a party that alleviates poverty by attacking the heart of capitalism, that is the super-rich and their profits.
The benefit cap is said to save £3 billion a year for the ruling class. That is a drop in the ocean compared to the £772.8 billion owned by the 350-richest families in the UK. By taking the wealth of society out of the hands of a tiny few and democratically controlling what we actually want and need, a socialist society would ensure we all live a life free from poverty.
