Am I just a bit of a soppy bleeding heart? There’s something about living in a wealthy country – actually the sixth richest on the planet – but seeing people sleeping in tents and knowing many children are already poor and hungry, but becoming poorer and ever more hungry that leaves me feeling distinctly queasy. Surely preventing destitution is something we can all get behind?
I think many of us are also united across political boundaries by our concern – and that’s putting it mildly – about what’s unfolding in Palestine. (And those other countries also experiencing war and increasing unrest too.) Of course the actions of Hamas against Israel on October 7th were utterly hideous and amount to war crime. But the on-going retaliation is barbaric and the obscene numbers of children killed is cause for sleepless nights and waking nightmares. It’s not hard to put yourself in their shoes. I do want a ceasefire and will do whatever can I do to call for that. Bombing solves nothing.
Not to mention my discomfort with the recent Conservative government’s u-turn on the UK’s gas and oil and production – which will inevitably lead to more global warning. Closer to home their are the plans for further destruction of important wildlife habitat only a few miles away at Minster Marshes and, of course the on-going fiasco at Manston.
The wrecking ball is swinging into all our lives… and those of our children and grandchildren.
Who was it that said – “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
It’s a sentiment I feel passionately about. And yet wilfully blind destruction is all around us.
Destitution? Really Karen I hear you ask. Well yes it’s growing, (it’s a precursor to the reintroduction of workhouses surely?) The Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) states that more than 1 million children in the UK are ‘living in extreme poverty, unable to meet basic needs.’ In other words living in destitution.
A recent major report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) shows, ‘a doubling of destitution rates in the past five years due to benefit cuts and rising living costs. (And) estimates that nearly 3.8m people overall experienced destitution in 2022.’ In the sixth richest country on the planet!
The report highlights ‘the reliance on food banks and charity handouts, with adults frequently going hungry and lacking essential items. Disabled individuals, Black British, Caribbean and African households, and lone parents are disproportionately affected. The JRF urges all political parties to commit to eradicating destitution and overhauling benefit rates.’
I agree. It is time overdue for all political parties to commit not only to eradicating destitution but to also have policies and targets that thoroughly rescind poverty. One way of doing this would be to shake-up Universal Credit. Thanet was a pilot area for the introduction of UC and I saw first hand the impact on families – lone parent families in particular. I also saw many more people forced out to sleep rough, and in cars and sheds.
It beggars belief that we had a Home Secretary Suella Braverman who referred to living in tents as a ‘life-style choice.’ I can assure you that simply isn’t the case. Rather it’s a visible symbol of a broken country.
You can see the open letter from Crisis here – Open letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Government proposals to criminalise the use of tents by people sleeping rough | Crisis | Together we will end homelessness
Speaking of broken… Kent County Council is pretty close to broke. As are many many other local authorities. KCC say they are now burning through reserves to keep going and ‘will have spent just under one quarter of its usable reserves in the two years to April 2024, dropping from £408m to £316m.’
There’s a staff recruitment freeze in place and plans to make the council even more lean. Cuts will impact services – of that I’ve no doubt. And many services are already threadbare. But that isn’t to say I don’t believe KCC staff wont be as hard working and as diligent as ever.
KCC is just one small piece of the overall Local Authority funding jigsaw. The Local Government Association (LGA) warned in July ‘councils in England face a funding gap of almost £3bn over the next two years just to maintain current services, the situation looks set to deteriorate even further by the time the general election rolls around.’ I guess Labour will be left to pick up the pieces…
Meanwhile the promise of £460M for a new hospital in East Kent is now totally off the table, making vital health services ever more difficult to deliver and planning to meet our populations health needs even more challenging. The cash remember was supposed to come from a £3.7 billion pot which the government has set aside to deliver 40 ‘new’ hospitals by 2030. That cash has now been diverted to hospitals with RACC problems.
The National Audit Office has also confirmed that, ‘more than a billion pounds of the £1.7bn committed to reforming the adult social care system in December 2021 has been diverted to other care priorities. Only £729million may now be spent between 2022 and 2025 on reforming the adult social care system – representing a 58% fall in the budget”. This is why the healthy elderly languish in hospital beds – there’s frankly no safe way of discharging them. Nor supporting them adequately when they are discharged. This is shameful.
So don’t get old. Or be old. Don’t be young, don’t be on benefits (whatever your circumstances,) don’t need health care and heaven forfend you’ll ever require social care. And as mortgage payments surge and rents continue to rise don’t become homeless. Or Braverman will slap a fine on your tent, send you to court, and then possible to prison. Which like every other public sector institution is also broken.
It all amounts to the same thing as far as I can see – time for a General Election.
