By Will Horwitz
Did you know that of the seven million people deemed ‘economically inactive’ in the UK, two million would like to work? Or that last year 22% of women were in jobs earning less than £7 an hour? Or that many people moving off benefits into work end up no better off?
There are all sorts of reasons why people of working age end up living in poverty. Community Links and our partner Church Action on Poverty have won funding from the DWP for a project to uncover, raise awareness of, and begin to tackle, some of these issues. It’s part of the European Year Against Poverty.
At Community Links we’ve always believed that people who experience a problem understand it best, so we’re going to spend the next few months asking people experiencing poverty what needs to change. Once we’ve agreed on the most important issues, both perceptions that need challenging and policies that need changing, we’ll set about doing just that.
And we’d like to hear what you think.
A few weeks ago we organised a week of blog posts looking at how poverty is portrayed in the media. A fascinating variety of opinions and debate convinced us it’s worth doing again.
This time we’re asking you two very simple questions. They can either apply to working age people as a whole, or a particular group you work with or feel strongly about.
1) What single national policy change would most reduce poverty amongst working age people?
2) What public myth or misperception about poverty is it most important that we challenge?
We’d like you to explain a bit about why your particular policy change or myth is so important, not just name it. The week begins on Monday 15th March , so please email your submission, of between 200 and 1000 words, before then, along with any photos or videos you think would be suitable.
If you need a bit more guidance, we’re going to give the week a bit of structure, as follows:
In-work Monday: we’ll be looking at policy changes that would affect people already in work, but who still live in poverty (perhaps because of low wages or insecure employment).
Getting-into-work Tuesday: policy changes that would affect people who are out of work but looking for a job.
Out-of-work Wednesday: policy changes that would affect people who can’t work, or are not looking for a job (perhaps carers, for example).
Public perception Thursday: we’ll concentrate on myths or public perceptions that most need to be changed. A great example is today’s campaign from Gingerbread, challenging the stereotype that single parents are all out-of-work teenagers.
Any Other Business Friday: A day for any off-the-wall submissions, and for drawing some conclusions.
Everything we learn from this week will feed into our work over the next 9 months. By the autumn we will be taking a set of proposals to policy-makers in Westminster, and running a myth-busting campaign. Don’t be surprised if some of the ideas suggested this week crop up there.
