Category Archives: Poverty

Lone renter in ‘David and Goliath’ row with Montreal developers

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Carla White’s battle has shone a light on city’s lack of affordable new housing for those on low incomes

A single tenant in a Montreal apartment block has halted a multimillion-dollar development project in a standoff that has focused fresh attention on the lack of affordable housing in major Canadian cities.

Property developer Mondev has been trying for years to persuade Carla White to move from her small C$400-a-month (£238) apartment so it can demolish a row of mostly abandoned buildings and build 176 luxury apartments.

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‘We give our blood so they live comfortably’: Sri Lanka’s tea pickers say they go hungry and live in squalor

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Top tea firms investigate as plantation workers say they have to pick 18kg a day but still skip meals and make their children work

Some of the world’s leading tea manufacturers, including Tetley and Lipton, are examining working conditions on the plantations of its Sri Lankan suppliers, following a Guardian investigation.

Two global trade-certification schemes, Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance, are also conducting inquiries after it was revealed that some workers on 10 certified estates could not afford to eat and were living in squalid conditions.

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‘Everyone’s welcome’: community unites at Coronation Big Lunch in Leeds

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‘Pay as you feel’ celebration in Armley, one of city’s most deprived wards, is one of more than 67,000 across bank holiday weekend

Parishioners had put out enough chairs in the grounds of Christ Church in Armley, Leeds, to seat about 80 people for their Coronation Big Lunch – but it was starting to become clear they may have underestimated.

Helped by sunny weather on Sunday, numbers were nearly twice as high, and it was not long before pews were being brought outside to seat the diverse gathering, one of more than 67,000 Big Lunches being held across the bank holiday weekend as part of the official coronation celebrations.

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UK households missing out on £19bn a year in unclaimed welfare benefits

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Complexity of system and perception of government handouts as ‘shameful’ stopping people from accessing much-needed support

Millions of UK households are collectively missing out on at least £19bn a year in unclaimed welfare benefits, at a time when many are forced to use food banks or run up debt as they struggle with rising living costs, according to new estimates.

Lower income households are failing to claim benefits and other cash support for which they are eligible, according to a study by the consultancy Policy in Practice. Some families could be forgoing as much as £4,000 a year.

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‘Latte line’: poverty rises in parts of Sydney as gap hardens between city’s east and west

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Exclusive: One in five renters are among 1 million living in poverty, according to New South Wales Council of Social Services

The “latte line” dividing Sydney’s western and eastern suburbs is hardening, with new research identifying deepening levels of poverty within already disadvantaged areas and groups.

A report commissioned by the New South Wales Council of Social Services (Ncoss) also found one in five renters are among more than 1 million people living in poverty in the state.

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Dominic Raab bullying claims: deputy PM refusing to resign after reading report – as it happened

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Dominic Raab denies wrongdoing after report on his behaviour delivered to Rishi Sunak this morning

Today’s announcement by the Association of School and College Leaders that it is to hold a formal ballot for national strike action for the first time in its history (see 9.49am) marks a significant development in the ongoing dispute between teachers and the government.

Up until now only members of the National Education Union (NEU) have taken strike action in England, with five more days of strikes planned for later this term. In addition a fresh ballot is to be held to provide the NEU with a mandate for further strike action up until Christmas.

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Forty families a day threatened with no-fault evictions since Tories vowed to ban them

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Exclusive: Labour figures show scale of issue in England despite Conservatives vowing to abolish the practice four years ago

An estimated 40 families have been threatened with a “no-fault” eviction every day in England in the four years since ministers first promised to scrap them, analysis shows.

The Conservatives first promised to end the practice in 2019, but the government has yet to pass legislation despite repeated promises from ministers and former prime ministers.

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Majority-Black town fights to stop land being seized for gravel quarry rail link

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Residents of Sparta, Georgia, are trying to stop the Sandersville railroad and its influential owners from building a spur to a quarry

A majority-Black rural community in Georgia is battling to stop a railroad company from seizing private land for a new train line they say will cause environmental and economic harms.

Residents of Sparta, a poor community of 1,300 people located a hundred miles south-east of Atlanta, are opposing the construction of a rail spur that would connect a local quarry to the main train line, enabling the gravel company to vastly expand mining that already causes dust, debris and noise pollution.

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Food banks supported 800,000 UK children in 2021-22, data shows

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One-fifth of UK population was in relative poverty after first year of pandemic, when support measures scrapped

Families including 800,000 children were forced to turn to food banks to feed themselves as poverty levels started to rise again after the first year of the pandemic, the first official figures on UK food bank use show.

The statistics came in official poverty data, which revealed that the reduction in relative poverty achieved during the first year of the Covid crisis in 2020-21 was temporary and was reversed after ministers scrapped support measures.

In-work poverty remains high – half (54%) of people in poverty lived in a household where at least one adult was in work, while more than two-thirds of children in poverty (71%) lived in working families.

Child poverty rates were much higher among black (53%) and Asian (47%) families than white families (25%). About 44% of children in single-parent families, and 36% of children living in families where someone has a disability, were in poverty.

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Australia politics live: government and opposition strike agreement over voice referendum machinery changes

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Bipartisan approach likely as Senate addresses changes to the rules governing referendums. Follow the day’s news live

Voice negotiations

The referendum machinery legislation will set up how the voice referendum will run – the machinery surruounding the vote, if you will.

We’re negotiating in good faith in the Senate that’s being led by Jane Hume who is doing an outstanding job. What we said to the government in the beginning is what we’re saying to them now and that is that we are not prepared to trash decades of referendum precedent, and not do this in a way that Australians expect us to, in their interests, for their information.

We’re asking for a pamphlet to outline the yes and no case, and we’ve talked about that. We’re asking for equal funding of the yes or no case, not the millions of dollars that may go into a public campaign on either side of this debate, but just the administration funding.

Fifty-seven per cent of the population does not want to open new coal and gas mines and I think there’s a very clear message coming through there. Secondly, no, I have got a lot of time for Jacqui Lambie, but we had an emissions trading scheme in this country and she was part of a party that voted to repeal it so let’s let’s not get too carried away with the spin here.

We’re in a climate crisis, as the UN secretary general has made clear. The decisions that we make now will reverberate for generations to come and the big decisions that we’ve got to make, do we open new coal and gas mines or not?

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Majority of Australians on jobseeker and parenting payments live in poverty, study finds

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Report on 3 million people living below the breadline shows welfare payments are ‘totally inadequate’ and action is needed in May budget, Acoss says

The majority of people on the jobseeker and parenting payments are living in poverty while about a third of single parents are also below the breadline, according to a new study.

A report from the University of New South Wales and the Australian Council of Social Service, to be released on Wednesday, provides further insight into the demographics of 3 million people, including 761,000 children, previously identified as living in poverty in the 2019-20 financial year.

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Cross-party anti-poverty push targets ‘inadequate’ jobseeker payments

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Liberal and Labor MPs Bridget Archer and Alicia Payne unite in call for welfare boost

Two major-party MPs have launched a cross-party push to put the focus on unacceptable levels of poverty in Australia as they call for an increase to the “inadequate” jobseeker payment.

The parliamentary friends of ending poverty group, chaired by the Labor backbencher Alicia Payne and the Liberal MP Bridget Archer, will launch on Tuesday night with speeches from the Rev Tim Costello and the economist Chris Richardson, who has long called for an increase to unemployment benefits.

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UK aid to India does little for human rights and democracy, watchdog finds

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Programme spent £2.7bn between 2016 and 2021 but is fragmented and lacks a clear rationale, report says

Britain’s aid programme to India is fragmented, lacks a clear rationale and does little to counter the negative trends in human rights and democracy in the country, the government’s aid watchdog has found.

The findings are likely to be used by those who claim the UK government risks using its aid programme to deepen its relationship with India, including seeking free trade deals, rather than attempting to reduce poverty, which is the statutory purpose of UK aid.

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Revealed: record number of households in UK depending on food banks

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Almost 90% of food banks see increased demand, as organisers fear having to cut support or turn people away

More people are depending on food banks than ever before in Britain, new figures show, as “ever-increasing” numbers of households – including pensioners, NHS staff and teachers – seek help amid the cost of living crisis.

New research by the Independent Food Aid Network (Ifan), shared with the Observer, found that almost 90% of food banks surveyed reported increased demand in December 2022 and January 2023 compared with a year earlier. Half of the 85 organisations running 154 food banks that responded said if demand rose further they would either have to cut support or turn people away.

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Act now on energy bills subsidy or see fuel poverty surge, says Martin Lewis

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Jeremy Hunt urged to reconsider raising state-subsidised energy rate from April as market prices make delay affordable

Jeremy Hunt must act now to reverse plans to raise energy bills from April, MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis has warned, saying the change cannot wait until the spring budget next month.

In a letter to the chancellor seen by the Guardian, Lewis warned more than 1.7m more households could be plunged into fuel poverty if he does not urgently commit to freezing energy prices.

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Greenpeace threatens legal action over UK failure to meet fuel poverty targets

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Government plans to upgrade energy efficiency of homes will help only 5.8% of fuel poor households by 2030, campaign group claims

Greenpeace is threatening to take legal action against the government as it emerged a target to lift millions of struggling households out of fuel poverty is likely to be missed.

Government plans to upgrade the energy efficiency of homes will help fewer than 6% of fuel poor households by 2030, according to the environmental campaign group.

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People in abortion restrictive US states economically disempowered – report

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Wages, incarceration rates and unemployment benefits access worse when compared with states allowing the procedure

Wages, employment security, incarceration rates and access to unemployment benefits are all worse in US states where abortion is restricted or banned, compared with those where it is protected, a new report has found.

The report by the Economic Policy Institute also found that minimum wages are, on average, $3.75 an hour lower in abortion restrictive states compared with protective states ($8.17 compared with $11.92); and that restrictive states incarcerate people at 1.5 times the rate of protective states.

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Children in Australia’s poorest households have about 10% chance of becoming top earners

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Treasury research finds most severe poverty is ‘particularly entrenched’ but children far more likely to progress than in US

Children born into Australia’s poorest households will have little more than a 10% chance of becoming top income earners in their lifetime, according to new Treasury research.

But Treasury research on intergenerational income mobility, to be released on Friday, found children in the bottom fifth of households were “60% more likely” to make this leap than in the US, where just 7.5% make it into the top fifth by income.

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Disabled people among hardest hit by cost of living crisis, finds study

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People with disabilities more likely to cut back on energy use and food, Resolution Foundation says

Disabled people in the UK are much more likely to struggle to heat their homes and cut back on food this winter, according to a report highlighting “massive” income gaps amid the cost of living squeeze.

Research from the Resolution Foundation found people with disabilities had an available amount to spend that was about 44% lower than that of other working-age adults, exposing them hugely to the rising cost of essentials.

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Takeaways in poor parts of England more likely to fail on hygiene

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One in five takeaways in some areas of UK did not satisfactorily meet required standards, data shows

Takeaways in poorer parts of England are twice as likely to need improvement in food hygiene as those in wealthier areas, with as many as one in five in some parts of the UK falling below required standards, according to Guardian analysis.

Almost one in 10 takeaways in England’s poorest neighbourhoods did not satisfactorily comply with food hygiene standards, compared with just one in 24 in the richest, according to an analysis of almost 600,000 inspection reports at the beginning of December, 64,000 of them takeaways.

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