UK seeing 'a big rise in poverty', says IFS

Falling incomes will mean the biggest drop for middle-income families since the 1970s - and will push 600,000 more children into poverty, says a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The IFS forecasts two years "dominated by a large decline" in incomes.

By 2013 there will be 3.1 million children in poverty in the UK, according to the IFS projections.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said benefits changes would tackle poverty by "making work pay".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15242103

For comparison in the US : Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade’

WASHINGTON — Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it.

And in new signs of distress among the middle class, median household incomes fell last year to levels last seen in 1996.

Economists pointed to a telling statistic: It was the first time since the Great Depression that median household income, adjusted for inflation, had not risen over such a long period, said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard.

“This is truly a lost decade,” Mr. Katz said. “We think of America as a place where every generation is doing better, but we’re looking at a period when the median family is in worse shape than it was in the late 1990s.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html?pagewanted=all

Some of our benefits paid out may currently be misplaced and could possibly be put to better use:

THOUSANDS of people are enjoying luxury Mercedes and BMW cars provided free by the taxpayer in a vast scam.

The £1.4 billion-a-year Motability scheme supplying cars for the disabled is being abused by claimants' friends and relatives.

A disabled person can nominate someone to drive them around, and rules state the Motability car must not be used for any other purpose.

But few checks are made, and thousands of nominated drivers use the vehicles for their own benefit.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3647318/Free-BMWs-for-pals-of-disabled-in-scam.html

similar article here : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2047593/Ello-John-got-new-Motability-motor.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Bearing in mind that's what I still do, car leasing, I'd figured there may well be some sort of scam running but couldn't put my finger on it. I was still under the impression that the scheme was there to help the physically disabled. I started to wonder when Motability secured the last remaining stocks of these :



and then these :

The Skin

To sum up, the Daily Fail is wildly misleading as per usual.

http://fullfact.org/factchecks/disability_benefits_motability_ADHD_Mail-3025

The Daily Mail's claim that 3,200 people with ADHD have used the Motability Car Scheme is inaccurate.

The number eligible for higher rate DLA - and therefore Motability vehicles - is recoded as 100 by the DWP, some way short of the figure given by the Mail.

However even if we conflate behavioural disorders with ADHD, as the Mail appears to have done, it is likely that the number using the scheme would fail to top the 3,200 claimed, as only 30 per cent of those eligible end up using the scheme.

To cap it all off, the article also downplays the severity of the disability that is needed to qualify for the Motability Scheme. Full Fact will be contacting the Mail to put these points to them, and to press for a correction.

but did include this gem :

Mike Betts, the firm's chief executive, was paid a package of £1.17m comprising a £475,000 salary and bonuses of £642,500, including long-term bonuses.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2005576/BMWs-thousands-friends-relatives-disabled-use-luxury-Motability-cars.html#ixzz1aU7sws5q

Not bad for running a non profit charity courtesy of taxpayers :sarcasm:

The overall absurdity is that neither government bothered to do a solus deal with a single manufacturer to get the best possible supply terms. I'm guessing that would most likely have been Ford.

Don't misunderstand me : I'm not against the Motability scheme just its misuse.

Especially not the Daily Fail, which is more interested in stirring up hatred towards the poor then reporting the truth.

and 'making work pay' will not solve the problem unless there is WORK for people to do! Unemployment, especially among the young, is an ever-increasing problem, as predictable when there are massive cuts during a recession.

With regard to the other issues: it needs to be remembered that the right-wing have a frightening crusade going on against disabled people, especially disabled poor people, and that the tabloids - the Sun, the Daily Mail, and perhaps most of all the Express - are pursuing a truly vindictive agenda aimed at portraying such people as workshy, benefit scroungers, or in need of a good kicking.

On the specific point of abuse of the Motability system: I am sure that nominated drivers *do" sometimes abuse the system for their own benefit. It can be tempting, no doubt, to do so; and when a disabled person's freedom depends so crucially on someone's willingness to drive them, they are likely to be reluctant to act as the 'bad guy' when their helpful neighbour or relative says, 'I have to go shopping with my kids and you know how difficult it is to find parking nearby - could I PLEASE use your car?' The solution doubtless is tougher checks on photographic ID in such cases.

For the rest, however, there is a lot of mean-spiritedness on the right about who is *really* disabled. Invisible disabilities in particular are treated as imaginary or as curable by just 'pulling yourself together'. T-i-B's post points out a lot of the inaccuracies in the Daily Mail.