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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/29/families-moved-home-job-security-zero-hours-contracts-social-isolation
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Moving families 300 miles from home is a cruel attack on the poorest | Moving families 300 miles from home is a cruel attack on the poorest |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| In the first six months of this year, more than 1,200 homeless families were moved out of London to as far away as Newcastle, Glasgow and Cardiff. Headline figures fail to accurately reflect the entire weight of human misery contained in their stories: the forced eviction to a place where the family has no links and knows no one; the stress involved in uprooting your entire life, disrupting your child’s education, and dealing with all the administrative issues involved. The housing crisis has worsened under austerity, with local councils outside the capital often not informed of an influx of people. | In the first six months of this year, more than 1,200 homeless families were moved out of London to as far away as Newcastle, Glasgow and Cardiff. Headline figures fail to accurately reflect the entire weight of human misery contained in their stories: the forced eviction to a place where the family has no links and knows no one; the stress involved in uprooting your entire life, disrupting your child’s education, and dealing with all the administrative issues involved. The housing crisis has worsened under austerity, with local councils outside the capital often not informed of an influx of people. |
| Further, tearing families away from their friends and relatives is a surefire way to exacerbate the problem of loneliness, which is already a looming crisis across society. Making new friends is difficult in any new area, more so when you have caring responsibilities, and nigh on impossible when you are living on subsistence benefits and poverty wages. | Further, tearing families away from their friends and relatives is a surefire way to exacerbate the problem of loneliness, which is already a looming crisis across society. Making new friends is difficult in any new area, more so when you have caring responsibilities, and nigh on impossible when you are living on subsistence benefits and poverty wages. |
| The social isolation of poverty reinforces the psychological toll on those ensnared: anyone claiming any form of benefit is labelled a scrounger and told by the government to work harder. Self-isolation and shame are endemic factors, further silencing the collective misery inflicted on millions. | The social isolation of poverty reinforces the psychological toll on those ensnared: anyone claiming any form of benefit is labelled a scrounger and told by the government to work harder. Self-isolation and shame are endemic factors, further silencing the collective misery inflicted on millions. |
| Hammond claims hard work has paid off with end of austerity in sight | Hammond claims hard work has paid off with end of austerity in sight |
| With empathy seemingly in short supply, a common response to households being turfed out of the capital is, “Well, if I can barely afford to live there, why should anyone else?” Yet the fact that our tax credit system is a windfall for huge multinationals that refuse to pay a living wage is rarely questioned. And so an illogical idea – that the poor must be starved into action and threatened with poverty to spur them into work, while the wealthy are only incentivised by more wealth than they could possibly need – shows little sign of fading. | With empathy seemingly in short supply, a common response to households being turfed out of the capital is, “Well, if I can barely afford to live there, why should anyone else?” Yet the fact that our tax credit system is a windfall for huge multinationals that refuse to pay a living wage is rarely questioned. And so an illogical idea – that the poor must be starved into action and threatened with poverty to spur them into work, while the wealthy are only incentivised by more wealth than they could possibly need – shows little sign of fading. |
| But before rent rises and cuts to local councils pushed them out of their homes, many of these families could afford to make a living. And for those in work, a job used to offer stability and at least a basic standard of living. Now there’s a boom in insecure and zero-hours contracts. And added to that, new houses that they might have been able to afford aren’t being built, and the botched rollout of universal credit has left more people facing eviction and increasingly dependent on food banks. | But before rent rises and cuts to local councils pushed them out of their homes, many of these families could afford to make a living. And for those in work, a job used to offer stability and at least a basic standard of living. Now there’s a boom in insecure and zero-hours contracts. And added to that, new houses that they might have been able to afford aren’t being built, and the botched rollout of universal credit has left more people facing eviction and increasingly dependent on food banks. |
| Those who lack empathy don’t seem to realise that illness, relationship breakdown or the whims of a landlord can plunge anyone into financial crisis. Especially when household debt is the worst on record. Without a major redistribution of wealth, financial security for millions of people will grow increasingly more precarious. | Those who lack empathy don’t seem to realise that illness, relationship breakdown or the whims of a landlord can plunge anyone into financial crisis. Especially when household debt is the worst on record. Without a major redistribution of wealth, financial security for millions of people will grow increasingly more precarious. |
| None of us are as insulated from poverty as we think. The only solution is to express solidarity with the poorest, practise basic humanity, and fight against an economic system that lets the hyper-rich force the government to subsidise their businesses’ poverty wages. | None of us are as insulated from poverty as we think. The only solution is to express solidarity with the poorest, practise basic humanity, and fight against an economic system that lets the hyper-rich force the government to subsidise their businesses’ poverty wages. |
| • Dawn Foster is a Guardian columnist | • Dawn Foster is a Guardian columnist |
| Housing | Housing |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| Zero-hours contracts | Zero-hours contracts |
| Homelessness | Homelessness |
| Social exclusion | Social exclusion |
| Poverty | Poverty |
| Loneliness | Loneliness |
| comment | comment |
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