Category Archives: Op-eds

The first sentence of the Preamble to the Liberal Democrat constitution, oft quoted, sets out the sort of society we want to see:

The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

No-one – that’s a high bar, and it’s not qualified by national boundaries. Tackling poverty is a central part of what we are about.

In December, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published its third report into destitution in the UK. Updated to include the impact of the pandemic on already high vulnerable people, it makes horrifying reading. Why, in one of the richest countries in the world, do too many people not have the ability to access the basics of food, shelter and clothing? Why do we tolerate it? And what can we do to change things?

Let’s look at some of those conclusions from the JRF Report, which should make every single government minister feel utterly ashamed.

With more than a half (54%) of the whole destitute population being sick or disabled according to our quantitative survey, COVID-19-associated delays in the processing of DLA renewals and PIP claims and appeals had a detrimental effect on the mental health and material wellbeing of people in receipt of or applying for these benefits. The loss of face-to-face contact with health and other services often hit participants with mental health or drug or alcohol problems especially hard, as they felt much less benefit from online or telephone-based support. The difficulties of contacting local authorities on unaffordable telephone lines was a particular problem during lockdown when council offices were closed.

A household’s ability to manage relationships well through the COVID-19 crisis depended very much on space they had at their disposal. Overcrowding and lack of access to outside space affected many of those we spoke to, and parents who were interviewed reported that the effect of lockdown on their children was overwhelmingly negative. Some participants lived in inadequate or shared forms of accommodation, which made social distancing requirements challenging to fulfil. Several interviewees had paid rent arrears with credit cards to stave off eviction, and others were awaiting eviction once the protection offered by the eviction moratorium had ended.

Some things helped, though. The extra £20 per week on Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit, along with increased working hours for some key workers, helped take some people out of destitution. Only into poverty, though, which is just as unacceptable. The removal of conditionality elements for Universal Credit – the suspension of the requirement to prove that you are spending all your time looking for work – had a beneficial impact on stress levels and mental health too. The ban on evictions helped remove the threat of homelessness, although they didn’t stop arrears accumulatingBut these are the things that the Government is stopping.