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Child poverty

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From: The Socialist issue 910, 13 July 2016: Organise the resistance: fight the Tories and the Blairites

Search site for keywords: Child poverty - Poverty - Housing - Children - Privatisation - Pensions - Austerity - DWP - Cuts - Welfare - Bedroom tax - Disabled - Housing benefit - Minimum wage

Child poverty rises by 200,000 in a year

photo Matt J Newman/Creative Commons (Click to enlarge)

Lucy Nuttall

In the space of just one year, 2014 to 2015, the number of children living in poverty in the UK has risen by a staggering 200,000. This brings the total number to 3.9 million, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

A YouGov survey earlier this year reported that four out of five teachers in England and Wales see children arriving at school hungry. These damning statistics show the abject failure of capitalism to provide a decent standard of living for the 99%.

In response to these rising levels of deprivation, Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb stressed the importance of understanding "the root causes of poverty". His career as a Tory politician revolves around enforcing them! Ceaseless austerity, privatisation and welfare cuts cause immense suffering for ordinary people, transferring wealth from the poorest and most vulnerable to a tiny super-rich minority.

Many Tory policies are a direct attack on poor families, making it an increasingly difficult struggle for parents to provide for their children.

For example, limiting child tax credits and housing benefit to just two children. The draconian Housing Act which will effectively end social housing, crushing working class communities. And the discriminatory bedroom tax punishing social housing tenants, especially households with disabled members.

Children - and all working class people - deserve a life free from poverty. The Socialist Party calls for an immediate £10 an hour minimum wage, secure jobs and housing for all, and the reversal of all austerity and privatisation.

We link this to the need for a fundamentally different society, run in the interests of the working class. Only by fighting for a socialist world can we permanently end poverty.

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.