“Poverty is defined relative to the standards of living in a society at a specific time. People live in poverty when they are denied an income sufficient for their material needs and when these circumstances exclude them from taking part in activities which are an accepted part of daily life in that society.”
(Scottish Poverty Information Unit found (online) at, http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/int/ms/health/wealth/def_of_poverty/definitions.shtml).
The stereotypical and traditional view of poverty is people living without food and water and basic amenities that other people take for granted such as shelter and heat and one that invokes images of the 1950’s ‘slums’ in Glasgow or shanty towns in places like south Africa. This is what is known as absolute poverty but the government and western cultures in particular measure poverty in another way, known as relative poverty.
Absolute poverty is seen as the amount of income that it requires to survive everyday as a human being, the amount of which does not increase with growth, inflation, or differ from nation to nation, “Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is the same in all countries and which does not change over time”, (http://poverty.org.uk/summary/social%20exclusion.shtml). In third world countries the minimum amount of money to survive is between $1 and $2 and because we in Britain survive on incomes far above this (people unemployed and on benefits for example have a minimum income of between £7 and £8 a day which is between $10 and $11), it is generally accepted that there is no absolute poverty in Britain.
Relative poverty is when people lack the minimum amount of income needed to live a reasonable standard of life. This amount is measured against people who live in society similar to yours and is therefore relative to where you live and for this reason differs from nation to nation. Relative poverty is measured not only by the average income but also the access to what society perceives as a norm such as driving a car in the UK or having food and shelter in a third world country and also the social exclusion caused by the lack of income. Relative poverty can change, as a country growths and becomes wealthier, the income of people living in relative poverty increases but it can also go down when recessions or policy’s such as the current government’s austerity policy happen.
The relative poverty threshold is 60% of the nation’s median income and anyone living below this threshold is considered to be living in relative poverty. In the UK the median (which is the amount in the middle of the highest and lowest paid) in 2013 was £26,884 or £517 a week, before tax. The figures published by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in 2013 also highlighted the continued gap between men and women’s average salary with men earning 10% more. With Scotland’s median income at £23,000 or £440 a week it is below the UK average meaning that Scotland has a lower threshold for relative poverty than the UK average.
Scotland has seen an increase of people living in relative poverty during the conservative government’s time in office. The government s policy of cutting deficit by reducing the welfare budget has seen some of the most vulnerable people in society such as the disabled and elderly fall deeper into poverty and has saw the increase of food banks all over the UK as even working families struggle to pay bills and feed themselves. Statistics released by the Scottish government showed the increase in people living in relative poverty in 2013:
◾16% of people (820,000) were living in relative poverty in 2012-13 – 110,000 more than the previous year and an increase from 14%.
◾19% of children (180,000) were living in relative poverty in 2012-13 – 30,000 more than the previous year an increase from 15%.
◾15% of working age adults (480,000) were living in relative poverty in 2012-13 – 70,000 more than in 2011-12.
◾15% of pensioners (150,000) were living in relative poverty in 2012-13, 10,000 more than the previous year and an increase from 14%.
◾Typical income in Scotland in 2012-13 was £23,000, equivalent to £440 per week.
Found (online) at, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics).
When Tony Blair’s labour government came to power in 1997 the term social exclusion started to be used to help define poverty and poverty started to be measured not only by income but by opportunities that were available to people in comparison to the average citizen. There are large inequalities between people on high incomes and those on low incomes and the availability of opportunities to those on low incomes are less as a direct result of earning less than the average citizen. This can affect the standard of living and even peoples life expectancy.
When the price of buying a house is pushed up it is the people who are on low incomes who are affected the most as houses become out of reach financially. People on middle incomes or at the salary median can afford to purchase a house with the knowledge that it will on average take them 25 years to pay off. People on high incomes though can afford to buy multiple homes and use this to earn money by letting them out, while also driving the interest rate up increasing the value of the properties, making them even more unattainable to people on low incomes and first time buyers. This also has the knock on effect of not having enough social housing for the people who need it and increasing the level of homelessness, as private let houses are unaffordable to many people particularly those with physical disabilities and single males and females, on benefits who cannot get enough housing benefit to rent even the most modest of privately rented homes (this has caused the Scottish government to stop the right to buy scheme due to the shortage of social housing). This is an inequality that comes from a number of things including the government’s austerity policy that targets the poor and their lack of investment in social housing, plus the unfair distribution of wealth as profits made by big companies are not directly reinvested in the workforces salary and the global recession caused by the banks who set the interest rates and gave out the mortgages to buy these homes in the first place.
There are also inequalities in the provision of health between people on low and high incomes and this can be seen in geographical areas, were it has long been known that people living in areas with a higher income live for longer. Glasgow has the lowest life expectancy in Scotland and this is even higher in areas of high poverty. In Drumchapel men have the average life expectancy is 73 for a man and 78 for women, while neighbouring Bearsden has the highest life expectancy at 80.5 years for men and 83.5 years for women. The only difference between these adjoining areas is the level of income and poverty. There have been a number of reasons put forward to explain this including the price of fresh and healthy food, poor education and a higher standard of living for wealthier people due to earning higher. A recent study by Glasgow and Dundee universities though has found that the distribution of money for health is imbalanced in favour of the high earning areas. They found that doctors in low income areas like Drumchapel were given less funding per patient than doctors working in areas of higher income areas like Bearsden, despite the fact that doctors in low income areas treat 40% more patients with more chronic health problems. This lack of funding is causing doctors to spend less time with patients due to monetary reasons. The total money spent by doctors in affluent areas was £3 million or £127 per patient, while in deprived areas it was £2 million or £117 per patient, meaning that even though low income areas need more support and have a lower life expectancy, the people on higher incomes continue to receive better quality of health care, contributing to them living longer. The authors of the study suggest that the only way to improve the health of people on low incomes is to reverse this trend and invest more in deprived areas.
Marxism is based on the writings of Karl Marx and he believed that poverty was a direct result of the power differentials that exist between two classes in a capitalist society with the bourgeoisie (ruling/upper class) owning the means of production and through this controlled the working relationship, which it uses to control and exploit the proletariat (working/lower class), who only have their labour to sell. “The worker is not at all in the position of a free seller vis-à-vis the one who employs him…. The capitalist is always free to employ labour, and the worker is always forced to sell it. The value of labour is completely destroyed if it is not sold every instant. Labour can neither be accumulated nor even be saved, unlike true [commodities]”, (Karl Marx, economic and philosophic manuscripts, wages of labour (1884), found (online) at, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/wages.htm).
The impact of poverty on the elderly in society can have devastating impacts on their quality of life. As people get older and retire from work they often have to survive on low incomes. This can be a major culture shock for some pensioners as they move from having a regular wage to surviving on a state pension (the maximum is £115.95 per week). This leaves a lot of pensioners without enough money to properly care for themselves and they are often left with the choice between food and heating (fuel poverty), while having a lack of income also restricts the amount of money available to socialise leaving pensioners isolated. A lot of pensioners are also reluctant to get into debt and a lot of them are proud to live within their means, but this takes away an avenue of income that is there for most others in society for emergencies. All of this means that more pensioners are falling into poverty and are actually dying from things like fuel poverty. Here are some statistics from Age UK that highlight the harsh realities of living on a low income in later life,
◾1 in 6 pensioners (1.8 million or 16% of pensioners in the UK) live in poverty, defined as 60% of median income after housing costs
◾Pensioners are also the biggest group of people on the brink of poverty with 1.2 million on the edge
◾Low income in retirement is often linked to earlier low pay, or time out of employment – for example, due to caring responsibilities, disability or unemployment
◾Women, those age 80 to 84, single people living alone, private tenants, and Pakistani and Bangladeshi people are at greater risk of pensioner poverty