Action Card - November 2020
Poverty in the UK
u In the UK in 2019: Absolute poverty has risen by 200,000 to 3.7 million children
u Relative Child Poverty remained broadly stable at 4.1 million
u 70% of these children now come from working families - up from 67% last year
u 53% of children in poverty are aged under five.
Since the 2020 lockdown it is estimated that 6 million people in the UK have not been able to pay their bills. Poor areas
continue to face the problems they have faced for many years, including early deaths, a high crime rate, suicides, drugs,
alcoholism and very high unemployment.
Here is the story of just one person, normally a worker with the ‘Big Issue’, who suffered during the lockdown:
‘I lived in a flat, walking up and down on my own. I kept in touch with the Manchester ‘Big Issue office and I got
some money from the hardship fund <http://easydonate.org/HARDSHIP> to help me out but it didn’t replace the money
that I would make selling the magazine. I also missed my regular customers. I know that they were all asking when I was
coming back to sell. ‘I’m back on my pitch and it’s lovely to see all my customers’
During the lockdown I wasn’t very well. I was very depressed, very down. I tried to commit suicide at one point. I went up
on the roof. I was three floors up. Someone saw me and called the police and the fire brigade. The police were trying to talk
to me but I wouldn’t listen to them. And then someone from the fire brigade came and put a rope around me and pulled me
back. I was taken to hospital and spent a week there.
I needed some more tablets for my depression but I couldn’t get to the doctors to get them. I’m in rent arrears and I also
owe loads of money on my electric. I was very worried about money. When I was on lockdown I couldn’t take any more.
Now I’ve got my medication sorted out. That helps a lot but I’m still worried about money. I work as long as I can but I’m
not earning a lot. It’s hard at the moment as lots of my customers aren’t using cash, only cards. I can’t get a card machine
because I don’t have a bank account. I’m hoping for the next couple of years that I’m going to carry on selling Big Issue
North, but I would like to get a different job one day. I was a gardener in Leeds and I would like to go back to doing that. I
haven’t been able to do any gardening recently because I live in a flat.’
Actions might include:
Buy the ‘Big Issue’ to support people’s efforts to earn a living and achieve independence.
Support charities working to improve the lot of poor children..
Write to your MP about the levels of poverty in the UK today and suggest ways forward for your own area.