The Government’s welfare cuts are forecast to trigger an increase in
inequality – a concerning development in and of itself. But a much more serious
consequence of those cuts is the accompanying rise of destitution.
Feeding
Birkenhead is working tirelessly to prevent poorer families and individuals
falling into the clutches of destitution. Yet the frontline projects and
volunteers who undertake this work report that a growing number of vulnerable people are dropping out of the system altogether.
Single people living alone – including one army veteran who recently had to
survive in the bushes, and a vulnerable man who was sanctioned for missing a
benefit appointment because he was in A&E – are particularly at risk of
succumbing to this social evil.
Likewise, children from poorer
families, for whom Feeding Birkenhead provides free dinners during the school
holidays, are in some cases going without food in the morning as there is
nothing to eat at home. They arrive hungry.
Meanwhile, several of the town’s
schools report that during term time, a growing number of children are
beginning the day’s lessons on an empty stomach, without having eaten a proper
breakfast at home. They too arrive hungry.
Nothing short of a mega programme of social reform is
required to narrow the inequalities that exist on so many fronts between the
wealthiest and the poorest households in this country. We must first, though,
fight a rear-guard action to eliminate the destitution that afflicts all too
many of those at the bottom of the pile.
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