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| Breadline Britain day two: living on the 'cliff edge' of poverty | Breadline Britain day two: living on the 'cliff edge' of poverty |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| 10.48am: So, how did up to 3.6m households find themselves on the cliff edge? | |
| One of the most succinct accounts of how many of Britain's lower to middle income working families find themselves on the breadline can be found in a Oxfam report which came out last week. | |
| Called The Perfect Storm the report sets out the following key elements in the story: | |
| • Rising unemployment and declining incomes • The increased cost of living • Cuts to public services • Welfare reform and benefit cuts • Rising costs of housing • Weak labour rights. | |
| There are plenty of crunchy statistics in there. Here are some key ones: | |
| • Spending cuts hit the poorest tenth of the population 13 times harder than the richest tenth. • Seventy-two per cent of the benefit cuts announced in 2010 will be paid by poor women. • The number of Housing Benefit claimants in work more than doubled between November 2008 and February 2012. • Since the recession started, 830,000 permanent full-time jobs have been lost, and half a million new part-time jobs created. The number of people in temporary work because they cannot find a permanent job has risen by 73 per cent. The UK has weaker protection for those in work than Mexico. • Average earnings shrank by 4.4 per cent last year. Incomes of the directors of FTSE 100 companies rose by 49 per cent.(figures for the financial year up to April 2011) • Food prices have risen by 30.5 per cent in five years. The National Minimum Wage has risen by 12.1 per cent in the same period. | |
| There's some more stats here, courtesy of the Guardian datablog | |
| 9.35am: Welcome to day two of the Breadline Britain blog. | 9.35am: Welcome to day two of the Breadline Britain blog. |
| Today we'll be continuing our investigation into how ordinary Britons are coping (or not coping) with austerity: shrinking incomes, and rising costs, against a backdrop of cuts to services, and benefits. | Today we'll be continuing our investigation into how ordinary Britons are coping (or not coping) with austerity: shrinking incomes, and rising costs, against a backdrop of cuts to services, and benefits. |
| Our coverage of Britain's "cliff edge" working families – up to 3.6 million of whom are at high risk of falling into poverty – is collected in one place: here. Our stories and data posts reveal who these households are, where they live, and how they are coping. | Our coverage of Britain's "cliff edge" working families – up to 3.6 million of whom are at high risk of falling into poverty – is collected in one place: here. Our stories and data posts reveal who these households are, where they live, and how they are coping. |
| This morning we'll be looking at the causes and consequences of living on the cliff edge. | This morning we'll be looking at the causes and consequences of living on the cliff edge. |
| We'll be welcoming two guests to discuss Breadline Britain in an online chat at lunchtime today. Bruno Rost of Experian (which crunched the "risk of poverty" data) and James Plunkett, secretary to the Commission on Living Standards at the Resolution Foundation, will be answering your questions on a live Q@A between 1pm and 2pm. | We'll be welcoming two guests to discuss Breadline Britain in an online chat at lunchtime today. Bruno Rost of Experian (which crunched the "risk of poverty" data) and James Plunkett, secretary to the Commission on Living Standards at the Resolution Foundation, will be answering your questions on a live Q@A between 1pm and 2pm. |
| We also want to hear your experiences of living on the cliff edge, tell us about your experiences, hopes and fears. Leave comments below the line or email me at: patrick.butler@guardian.co.uk | |
| Later in the afternoon we'll be launching the second part of Breadline Britain: an investigation into the rising number of children arriving at school hungry. | Later in the afternoon we'll be launching the second part of Breadline Britain: an investigation into the rising number of children arriving at school hungry. |
| Please leave comments below the line or tweet me at @patrickjbutler | Please leave comments below the line or tweet me at @patrickjbutler |