Queen’s Speech

Baroness Janke Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Janke (LD)]

My Lords, when thinking about the debate today, I wondered what will change for the poorest and most vulnerable as a result of the new government agenda. For example, how will the 4.1 million children in poverty—referred to by the noble Baroness, Lady Blower, in her excellent maiden speech—benefit? Will food banks become redundant? Is the number of rough sleepers likely to go down? The answer seems rather depressing: that very little will change, particularly in the short term.

The hope is, however, that the rise in the minimum wage, which we welcome, will in time help some of those in most dire need. But we should not underestimate the scale and misery of poverty across the country. With low unemployment rates, 4 million workers live in poverty, an increase of 500,000 in the last five years. In-work poverty is rising faster than employment and is higher than at any time during the last 20 years. Some 60% of people in poverty live in a household where at least one person works, and 2.8 million people in poverty are in a household where both adults work. So the rise will be welcomed by many and seen as long overdue.

Policies such as the benefit cap and freeze, the two-child limit and the introduction of full job-seeking requirements for single parents of children as young as three have had a stark impact. In August 2018, two-thirds of those who had benefits capped were single parents. Single parents in the bottom 20% of income will have lost 25% of their 2010 income by 2021-22. As a result of tax and benefits changes, the poverty rate for children will jump to 62% by then if nothing changes.

Women earn, on average, 17.9% per hour less than men and make up 60% of workers receiving low pay. Reductions in social care services place a greater burden on primary care givers, who are also disproportionately women. Single-parent families, of whom 90% are women, are twice as likely to be in poverty as any other social group. Nearly half of those in poverty—6.9 million—are from families where someone has a disability. They have also been some of the hardest hit by austerity measures. Changes to taxes and benefits will mean that some families are projected to lose £11,000 by 2021-22—more than 30% of their income.

It is shocking to British people in the 21st century that we should have 14 million people in poverty. The UK has the fifth-largest economy in the world, a leading centre of global finance and record low levels of employment, yet one-fifth of the population is in poverty, with 4 million people more than 50% below the poverty line. Historically, the UK has had a proud record in terms of a strong social safety net, yet this has been systematically removed over recent years. People who, in former times, found a resource base to support them when they were afflicted by a major catastrophe now find that there are only volunteers and charities with limited resources providing for their most basic needs. How can a country such as ours not be shamed by such a state of affairs, with our benefit service likened to the 19th-century workhouse made infamous by Dickens?

Worse still, the support services that used to be a lifeline for those in poverty have been almost completely removed: youth and community services, social care, debt counselling and libraries have all been closed in record numbers. Surely the Prime Minister’s new golden age must see tackle the record levels of poverty. There must be not just a commitment but a plan to actually do this: to rebuild an effective social safety net national and locally, to address the issues that lead to low pay and insecure employment and to ensure that disadvantaged and vulnerable people are not driven into the deepening despair, humiliation and desperation that poverty brings, as victims of a system with a safety net full of holes.