A survey from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation claims that one-quarter of Londoners are poor. The charity’s annual report was created using government data from 2018 to 2021.
With approximately 2.3 million people without necessities like food and hygiene, it was discovered that London had the second-highest rate of poverty in all of England.
According to the authors, since the data was gathered, the situation has probably gotten worse.
For the years 2018 to 21, the average proportion of people living in poverty in England is 22%; London’s rate is 25%, second only to the north east of the country.
The charity continued by saying that residents of London were disproportionately likely to lack basic necessities, fall behind on payments, or struggle to keep their homes warm.
London “has continuously had the highest poverty rate for two decades, primarily due to very high housing expenses,” according to the foundation’s before to the release of this year’s report.
Even though the number of working individuals living in poverty in the city has decreased by 2% over the 2018–21 period, many still have to pay significantly higher rent than residents in other parts of the UK.
According to the survey, private renters in London with incomes in the bottom 40% pay twice as much on average as comparable renters in the rest of the UK.
According to data for 2020–21, 1 in 6 Londoners of working age who were living in working households were classified as being in poverty.
According to the study, 35% of members of ethnic minorities in the city of London live in poverty, compared to 19% of white Londoners, who include:
54% of people of Bangladeshi ancestry are poor.
Residents with Pakistani ancestry make up 46% of the poor.
Residents of Black communities are 42% poor.
According to the organization, the situation for Londoners is probably worse now because the brief increase in benefits during lockdown will have influenced the prior numbers.
A growing percentage of the population is becoming inactive, and pay has not improved in accordance with inflation, according to the charity, which said that employment “is still below pre-Covid-19 levels.”
The conclusions of the survey, according to Peter Matejic of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, were “heart-breaking,” and it was “wrong to see such a substantial and persistent correlation” between poverty rates and race.
“Leaving people to go without food, skip showers, or live in frigid homes risks more serious and long-term implications, not just for the health of the person, but also for the state’s ability to provide what we as citizens should be able to anticipate,” he said.
He added that the £20 increase to Universal Credit “certainly made a tremendous difference during the pandemic” and that “governments are far from helpless.”
“The comfort offered by this policy, taken away precisely when the crisis in the cost of living hit, also proved that the conventional rates of social security are fundamentally unfit for purpose, with millions now going without necessities like food, heat, and cleanliness.”
A government representative acknowledged that families across the entire nation were under financial strain, but claimed that this was “a result of Putin’s war in Ukraine and the aftershock of Covid.”
In addition, they stated that the government “intervened with a £26 billion support package, which includes up to £1,350 in direct payments to the most needy families next fiscal year, an increase over the direct payments in 2022.”
The English Household Support Fund directly assists people in need with vital costs, and we are currently providing free school meals to all five to seven-year-olds, benefiting millions of children in need, they added. We are also spending an additional £1.5 billion on additional support.
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