UK Child Poverty and the huge difference Marcus Rashford is making

The Shocking Facts on Child Poverty

 

Poverty blights the lives of children in the UK, more than we fully appreciate. It is truly shocking.

Child poverty is something that concern us all, but I am not sure that many of us realy understand the magnitude of what is a shameful situation, which worsening for children in the UK.

Poverty for children in the UK will increase this year, with the number of children trapped in poverty perhaps reaching 5 million by the end of 2021. That represents more than 7% of the entire UK population, and this number reflects only the children.

Let us take a moment to understand what child poverty in the UK represents, in a way that we can relate to.

The number of children who are classified as living in poverty is currently 4.3 million. This number, 4.3 million, is more than 6% of the UK population as a whole.

This is only the children who live in poverty.

Putting this into a perspective that we can relate to, it represents 9 school children in a classroom of 30 pupils. A quarter of all children in that classroom living in poverty.

This is frightening and deeply worrying.

The Children's Society have provided some insight on what this means to these children. They will suffer from hunger, bullying at school because they cannot afford the simple luxuries that the other children take for granted, and they will be excluded from activities because their family cannot afford to include them.

Living in poverty for a child is a stigma that they have to endure every day, they have no choice. It would be hard for an adult to cope with this, but what are we doing to fix it.

 

What is Poverty?

 

The definition of poverty?

Well, poverty starts at what is called the poverty line, which is set at 60% of the median household income in the UK. That is not very helpful I know, so I'll try and explain.

Median is different to ‘average’, but it essentially represents the middle-ground of nationwide household incomes. So poverty exists when you are 40% below what is considered the average household income.

Households Below Average Income (HBAI) is published annually by the Department of Work and Pensions, and the families that fall below this poverty line will struggle to provide for all of their family’s needs.

Living below the poverty line will result in hardship for a family, and hardship for the parents of the children living in poverty. It takes very little to fall into a state of despair for these families, especially in pandemic times.

The median household income was calculated at the end of 2020 as £547 per week, and this is before housing and other costs are considered. When housing costs are taken into account, the weekly income drops to £476 (although this includes £100 per week for housing, which I have to challenge, it could and probably is far more).

 

The gig Economy

 

The clear distinction between gig work and full-time employment is that a gig worker is paid for completion of a task and not for their time. If the task doesn't need doing, or isn’t completed for some reason, such as in a COVID-19 pandemic, then the gig worker gets paid nothing.

The gig worker may be impacted by the pandemic, but in some cases may benefit. If you are a gig worker delivering food then you will see a massive increase in work. But not every gig worker falls in to this category.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the proportion of the self-employed who reported being in arrears on household bills rose from 2% pre-pandemic to 13% in April–May 2020. It is clear that the self-employed and gig workers will have been impacted severely during the COVID pandemic.

Almost half of gig workers also have a full-time job, which means that making-ends-meet for these workers is dependent on them working many hours in a week. For 71.5% of gig workers, their gig work accounts for less than half of their income.

The impact of the pandemic on households who work in the gig economy has been mixed. After the first UK lockdown, Deliveroo signed up 11,500 new restaurants and announced plans for 15,000 new delivery drivers.

Uber on the other hand recorded a 73% drop in the number of rides. This has a serious impact on a driver's earnings (about £21K per year loss).

 

The Marcus Rashford Effect

 

What Marcus Rashford has achieved in helping to reduce the suffering of children living in poverty in the UK is quite simply outstanding. Well, it is actually a far greater achievement when you consider that Marcus is a young man of 23 years old who has a genuine desire to improve the lives of children in poverty.

And yet Marcus will still receive criticism from some of the press because he is himself a very wealthy young man.

What matters is that Marcus is making a significant difference to the lives of many children in the UK. These are children who have been given a chance to avoid hunger, and all because of the determination that Marcus has shown. It is truly wonderful.

Among the activities intended to help children, Marcus campaigned for vouchers to replace free school meals for the children who need them when schools were closed due to COVID and holidays.

He also raised enough money for 21 million meals for children and families who need them since March 2020. Yes, that is 21 million meals!

Marcus raised a petition, End child food poverty – no child should be going hungry, which was debated by Parliament on 24th May 2021.

The Government responded by announcing a comprehensive support package to help families through winter and beyond. This is all thanks to the hard work and commitment from Marcus Rashford.

Tim Adams at The Guardian wrote an enlightening article, Marcus Rashford: the making of a food superhero. It provides some background that explains the drive behind Marcus’ determination.

 

Marcus Rashford Endures the Negativity

 

Marcus has been prepared to endure a number of serious challenges, and yet persevered to achieve his goal (no pun intended). He ‘locked horns’ with the privileged and entitled conservative so called ‘elite’ for starters.

We all entrust this privileged government elite to make the right decisions for our country. They failed us on this occasion but were held to account thanks to Marcus Rashford’s determination.  He won that battle.

But it is not only the government’s negativity that Marcus has had to deal with. He has endured negativity from the press. Most notably (and I still find it hard to comprehend why these clowns published what they did) a derogatory article written about him in the Mail on Sunday by Andy Buckwell and Max Aitchison.

This article from Max and Andy says far more about the snide intentions of the Mail on Sunday than it does about Marcus Rashford.

You can only wonder who reads and supports this tabloid nonsense, and how The Mail on Sunday consider it acceptable to publish such garbage in the first place.

 

Marcus Rashford: the making of a food superhero

 

Marcus Rashford continues his extraordinarily successful campaign to help children in poverty, and he remains committed to this vital cause. Marcus is and will remain a formidable representative for children who need support.

It is sad but predictable that Marcus must also learn to tolerate the negative reactions from the cheap hacks at the Mail on Sunday among others. I wonder what Max and Andy were doing when they were 23 years old?

I haven’t yet mentioned the obvious and very serious additional personal challenge that Marcus and so many others must tolerate. The sickening racial abuse.

In response to the vile racists - Marcus Rashford represents humanity, compassion, and empathy. These are the characteristics that his detractors, the racists, are lacking.

To see the information relating to poverty and he impact that it has on children in the UK, please visit The Children's Society website and The Child Poverty Action Group. Thank you so much to both of these organisations, and of course Marcus Rashford.