They are of course two different things:
- unemployment is the state of not having a (paying) job
- poverty is being unable to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter
I strongly suspect there is a material correlation between unemployment and poverty.
Defining poverty in relative terms means a part of any population will be in poverty. In a population comprising millionaires and billionaires - relative poverty would happily define millionaires as needy - clearly daft.
Those living in poverty in the UK are (mostly) generally fed, housed, educated, enjoy health care, clean water, etc. They enjoy a living standard that would be regarded as aspirational in some parts of the world.
IMHO relative poverty is no more useful a definition than absolute poverty in defining real needs - more sense and less dogma needs to be applied.
The UK poverty line:
Using the current definition of poverty, it's facile for anyone to feel it can be eliminated, and it's far broader than most might imagine.
Households are considered to be below the UK poverty line if their income is below 60% of the median household income after housing costs (‘AHC’) for that year. The relative poverty threshold for a couple with no children was £327/week in 2022/23 AHC. A single person with no children is in poverty if they earn £190/week or less AHC
Absolute Poverty – number of people affected in the UK
Absolute poverty measures the number and proportion of individuals who have household incomes 60% below the median average in 2010/11, adjusted for inflation. It is used to look at how changes in income for the lowest income households compare to changes in the cost of living.
The median income threshold is the mid-point income in the UK population.
It means that half the population in the UK are earning the median income or less, and the other half earn that income or more. The median household income in the UK it's £578 per week, before housing costs are deducted from that income (BHC), and £498 per week, after housing costs were deducted (AHC).
60% of that median income is £347/week BHC and £299/week AHC. Therefore, when discussing Absolute Poverty BHC, the analysis represents the number and proportion of people from households earning £347 per week or less. When discussing Absolute Poverty AHC, the analysis represents people from households earning £299 per week or less.
On these definitions in 2022/23, 9.47m million people (14% of the UK) were living in absolute poverty before housing costs were deducted (BHC). Almost 12 million people (18% of the UK) were living in absolute poverty after housing costs were deducted (AHC).
The inescapable fact is that too high a proportion of the population have lost the work ethic, and whereas welfare benefit is meant to be a safety net to catch people when they fall, for too many, it's become a spider's web in which they get entangled, and becomes a subsistence level lifestyle choice getting by on a raft of benefits. 'If I got a job I'd lose my benefits, so I'd be working all week for just a few pounds more". (The 'non-Working Class?').
The UK is the only G7 country where employment is not back to pre-pandemic levels. The welfare bill is soaring - it's expected to top £300 Billion by the end of the year. Starmer says: 'those with the broadest shoulders should bear the load'. On any definition of 'broad shoulders', that would surely not include pensioners and the cancelling of the winter fuel allowance. How much will that shave off the the £300 billion welfare bill? £1.4 Billion - just 0.46%. (Don't train drivers have broad shoulders?)
When they sprung the cancellation of the winter fuel allowance after the election, the Labour Party keep repeating that they had no choice because no-one told them about the £22 billion 'black hole', but the Lab committed itself to protecting the non-means tested winter fuel allowance in every one of its manifestos in 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019. It was only in 2024 that is was quietly omitted so it seems clear to me that it was their intention all along but they kept quiet about it as they knew it wouldn't have been a vote winner, and had the outcry that's now ensued occurred before the election, they wouldn't now be in power. I had high hopes when Labour was elected, but in just a few short weeks, I think Starmer has blown it. Can't afford winter fuel payments, but can afford huge inflation busting pay rises to appease the unions. - He'll now be in hock to the TUC.
And before anyone makes subjective judgements, yes, I do know what real poverty looks like - I was born into it in 1939, and coped with it well, but I lifted myself out of it. In all my working life I only had six weeks off work in one stretch in 1985 to recover from a major back operation. Until I became a pensioner I never had a penny in welfare benefit, and apart from a mortgage, never went into debt. I'm not crowing about that - I think most of my generation could say the same.
