Government Response To Poverty And Social Exclusion

In the UK, particularly in England and Wales, children’s life chances are determined by the economic status of the families into which they are a part of. Children from poor households are more likely to suffer the consequences of their families’ condition. They will have to endure the stigma of poverty in a profoundly lopsided society where the socioeconomic standing of individuals is determined by their capacity to buy. These poor children also have less access to quality educational opportunities (Welbourne, 2012). Furthermore, children living in poverty at present are likely to remain poor for the rest of their lives because of intergenerational cycles of poverty

|inequality between gender and class and also, the extent of poverty in the current British context. I will also cover causes of |

“What is poverty? Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom” (The World Bank, 2009).

Millions of people suffer from poverty. These people have very little political power. They don't vote and are often viewed inferior to the average person. Poverty can cause body and health issues because they have poor living conditions, are malnourished, and are in unsanitary environments. It also can break people down emotionally and physically. Living in poverty puts lots of stress on people because they have to worry about where their next meal will come from, how they will pay for housing, and much more. People in poverty are also more likely to die young (Danziger 2001). Poverty affects people in many ways and is a major

The term ‘social problem’ refers to certain problems that are socially recognised by society and are felt to threaten certain values cherished by the public. This essay will investigate the different types of poverty that occur in the U.K and will explore the sociological arguments as to how poverty links with social problems such as social exclusion, gender discrimination in the work place, lone-parenting and disability and look at how these problems are perceived in today’s society.

Empirical evidence for the existence of a continuum of inequality must also be examined alongside the key sociological debates. At the time of Murray’s study, Sir Keith Joseph completed a landmark intergenerational project on poverty. It sheds light on one of the key tenets of the pro-underclass debate; that those that are born into the underclass, remain in it. (Welshman, 2007) Joseph concluded that actually, social mobility was in action, stating that at least 50% of children born into the poorest 10% of households did not remain in it after the age of 15 (Welshman, 2007). There was no sense that like begets like, indicating that at least at a micro level, the very poorest can and do improve their situation. However, the facts remain, especially today, that incomes are becoming more polarised at a rate faster than ever before. Relatively speaking, social mobility from the lowest socioeconomic groups has stalled and child poverty is increasing for the first time in twenty years.

The term social exclusion is widely contested (Parkin, 1979) as the term itself has no definitive definition. It is suggested the term social exclusion is used to refer to the term poverty or inequality (Levitas, 1996) as it has become the more fashionable terminology (Blakemore and

focus on reducing poverty. However, in his assessment of how to remedy this issue, he

Poverty is quite an issue not only in third world countries but also here in the United States. Interviews were conducted with 74 families with school-age children, including 44 families living at or below 150% of the federal poverty level and 30 families living above 150% of poverty (Heymann 5). Over 14 million U.S. children lived in poverty in 1997 (Sherman and Sandfort 555).

The government provides many federal funding program funding programs that help out the poor community such as SNAP which was previously referred to as food stamps, Women Infants and Children (WIC) and other community help programs. Sure, people are not dying of hunger, but Living in poverty still creates issues that prevent people from exiting their bad economic situation. The longer a person stays in poverty the more likely they are to make bad decisions, as they are not thinking level mindedly; they are only concerned with survival. Even something as simple as a credit cards can leave a person with some heavy debt that just keeps adding up overtime if payments are not being done on time, because the poor are in a terrible situation

Hall and Midgley (2004: 14), said poverty can be defined as a condition of material and social deprivation that causes individuals living under decent standard of living, or the conditions in which individuals experience relative deprivation compared with other individuals in society. John Friedman, poverty is defined as the inequality of opportunity to accumulate social power base. Bases of social power include (not limited to) productive capital or assets (such as land, housing, equipment, health, and other) sources of finance, social organizations hand and politics that can be used to achieve the common interests, the social network for jobs, goods; knowledge, skills adequate and useful information (Richard Quinney ,. 1979).

The poverty line is set at between fifty to sixty percent of the median household income in Australia. The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS), found that poverty in 2011 to 2012 was considered to be a single adult with an income of less than four hundred dollars per week and a couple with two children earning less than eight-hundred and forty-one dollars per week. This constitutes in over two and a half million Australians and nearly fourteen percent of the national population having an income that is below the necessary standard of living. It is evident that poverty is a persistent problem for low income people in Australia. For instance, according to the ACOSS approximately twenty five percent of those who overcame the low

As mentioned before, there are ways to end poverty, that way is enforcing stricter laws on violence and increasing the police force in impoverished areas. Surprisingly, fewer people are scared of genocides, and war, but are more scared from everyday violence. Recently, the UN conducted a report that found that most poor people live outside the protection of the law. People in the first world are in protection of the law, nearly all the time, basic law enforcement we use in case of an emergency comes in three digits, that is 9-1-1, and how fast does the average response time take, that is 10 minutes. The first world is safe, but what if we didn't have that and someone broke into your house. No child sponsorship, no anti-poverty programs, or any organization that donates money or foreign aid would stop that person that committed the

Many describe poverty as an economic deprivation, or lack of income. However, this alone does not incorporate the different social, cultural and political aspects of this unfortunate reality. Poverty is not only a deprivation of economic or material resources but a violation of human dignity. The general scarcity, lack, or the state of one without a specific amount of material possessions or money. It is a versatile concept that may be defined as either absolute or relative. Time and again, poverty is a call to action, for the poor and the wealthy alike, it is a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.

“Plan to Every Household” includes the identification of targets for poverty alleviation programme. Able-bodied rural residents whose incomes are below the poverty line are the main targets for poverty reduction program. The government will establish and improve poverty identification mechanism, build up archives and update them dynamically so as to ensure the effective support for the targeted poor population. On this basis and according to the specific requirements of poverty alleviation and development of county level, the local government will further make plans for the targeted poor population, suit the implement of poverty alleviation and development to local conditions, and tackle every obstacle step by step and village by village.