Foreign Affairs

unhappycamper

(60,364 posts) Thu Jul 2, 2015, 08:58 AM Jul 2015

Tories have redefined child poverty as not just about having no money

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/01/tories-redefined-child-poverty-no-longer-finances

New definition will have moral, judgmental dimension, as campaigners say further stigmatising single parent families will do nothing to tackle the issue

Tories have redefined child poverty as not just about having no money
Amelia Gentleman
Wednesday 1 July 2015 14.58 EDT

Is poverty caused by not having any money, or is it the result of lifestyle choices like “unstable relationships” and “debt and addiction”? This has been the ideological line dividing the debate on child poverty for the last decade; the Conservative government has finally succeeded in redefining poverty as no longer simply about finances, but about something fuzzier and less easy to measure.

Iain Duncan Smith has indicated he would move to repeal the 2010 Child Poverty Act, which committed the government to a target of eradicating child poverty by in the UK by 2020. In so doing, the work and pensions secretary dispensed with the current relative definition of poverty (anyone in a household beneath 60% of median income), abandoned all targets and introduced a new (although still rather unclear) definition, embracing work and education levels in the family.

Although the minister did not spell it out, there will be a moral, judgmental dimension to the new definition. The government says it plans to develop a “range of other measures and indicators of root causes of poverty, including family breakdown, debt and addiction”, which it will put together in a “children’s life chances strategy”. Further details of precisely how the new measures will work are expected in the next few weeks.

The direction of government policy comes as no surprise to anyone who has been following the work of the thinktank set up by Duncan Smith in 2004, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). It has often put more emphasis on lifestyle factors – shifting responsibility from external, structural factors (like low wages) to individual choices.

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Tories have redefined child poverty as not just about having no money (Original Post) unhappycamper Jul 2015 OP

I was poor as a child, one of 4 kids raised almost totally without help by my divorced mother. raging moderate Jul 2015 #1

raging moderate

(4,305 posts)

1. I was poor as a child, one of 4 kids raised almost totally without help by my divorced mother.

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Thu Jul 2, 2015, 09:26 AM

Jul 2015

Last edited Fri Jul 10, 2015, 06:30 PM - Edit history (2)

After my dad finally was gone, until we were grown up, my mother was absolutely celibate with no parties and no romance at all, judiciously temperate with only an occasional beer, and extremely hardworking with a full-time job outside the home plus hours of cooking and cleaning every day when she finally got home. My mother planned nutritionally balanced meals as much as possible on a shoestring budget, and she strongly discouraged candy and potato chips. She read to us and with us, organized family readings of plays, took us and sent us to the library, turned on educational TV shows, tuned in the educational radio stations, played classical music constantly, and scrubbed her floors to the sound of PBS opera every Saturday morning. She read the philosophical works of Plato/Socrates, Bertrand Russell, Will and Ariel Durant, and John Stuart Mill (whom she loved and quoted constantly).
Guess what: IT STILL HURT ME TO GO HUNGRY. PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY, AND EMOTIONALLY. AND PAYING MY MOTHER THE WAGES SHE HAD ACTUALLY EARNED WOULD HAVE BEEN THE CURE FOR THAT. NOT TO MENTION THE DENTAL CARE WE NEEDED. I WILL NEVER FORGET MY LITTLE BROTHER CRYING AT NIGHT WITH HIS TOOTHACHE. He was sickly all his life and died of heart failure at 51. Despite his illness, he managed to learn to play four instruments and write a number of classical music pieces, including a symphony. I will always wonder what he might have become with a little, only just a little more money in the family. My other siblings and I did better in life. Booey for us.
I would like to say that we were very lucky in one regard. OUR FAMILY DOCTOR, DR. JULIUS RHODES, TREATED US ALMOST FOR FREE, REPEATEDLY REFUSING TO ACCEPT ANY MONEY AND OCCASIONALLY MAKING HOUSE CALLS INCLUDING A FEW TIMES AT NIGHT. If anybody out there is related to Dr. Julius Rhodes of Chicago, I want you to know that you had a great saint and social reformer in your family. I wonder how many other children were saved by this wonderful man, brilliant and warm hearted and seemingly tireless. I love him and his whole family.

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