Poverty and inequality

“Even more austerity than we’d expected” was the verdict from the mainstream, conservative-minded Institute for Fiscal Studies on the government’s Autumn Statement of 5 December. “The rich”, said the IFS, are “likely to do better than the poor between 2011-12 and 2015-16”. The aim of the government’s cuts was always to use the crisis to shift the balance of forces in society heavily in favour of the rich, and against the working class, and so to ensure high profits in an eventual recovery. Chancellor George Osborne says the recovery is now underway. Evidence is very patchy so far, but possibly...

The average pay rise for directors at Britain’s top 100 companies in 2012-3 was 40 per cent. They now get an average of £3.3 million. The 40% rise comes after years of big boosts, but is even bigger than the 27% increase the bosses got in 2011-2. This year’s rise was made up mostly of increased returns on shares handed out to directors as part of their pay, rather than of cash wages and bonuses. Meanwhile, for the rest of us, average total weekly pay over the three months to August 2013 was only 0.7 per cent higher than a year before. In the public sector, pay actually fell, by 0.5 per cent...

High-cost credit/payday loan companies, whose turnover is estimated to be £2.2 billion per year, are coming under pressure both for their lending practices and for the way they advertise. In June Wonga raised its typical APR from 4,214% to 5,853%. Companies have been criticised for using cute advertising characters – such as Wonga’s “straight-talking” elderly characters the Wongies - and taking out slots during children’s TV. Representatives of three of the biggest companies, Wonga, QuickQuid and Mr Lender, appeared before Parliament’s Business Select Committee on 5 November to answer...

Thousands of people in Britain will die needlessly this winter because they can’t afford to heat their homes adequately. Many hundreds of thousands more will have to chose between heating and eating. Since Ed Miliband spoke on energy prices at Labour Conference, a debate has been raging on snug TV sofas and in temperature-controlled offices of newspapers about how energy prices are affecting people and what sticking-plaster policy will play well in key marginals. Scarcely mentioned, though, has been the real answer: take the energy companies into public ownership and put them under democratic...

Announcing the new prosecution guidelines for so-called “benefit cheats”, Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said: “benefit and tax fraudsters cost the taxpayer [£9.1 billion every year]”. Benefit fraudsters, the new guidelines insist, should therefore should be sentenced under laws which carry a maximum jail term of ten years. What Starmer did not say was that benefit fraud accounts for just £26.9 million, or 0.3%, of the £9.1 billion total. According to the Tax Research website, the figure for tax fraud (based on undeclared income) is an underestimate, and could be as much as...

Older people in the USA prefer "capitalism" to "socialism" by a huge margin. But among under-29s it's different. Here are the figures: and this is the source: click here . "Socialism" can mean many things to many people, but it's a fair guess that in the USA it means some high degree of social provision, public measures to improve equality and freedom, and democratic inroads into the rule of profit and market forces. That general idea is much more popular: among young people than among older people; among African-Americans than among white people (and "capitalism" is even more unpopular among...

UK Uncut has announced: "in July we plan to transform crisis causing, tax-dodging, bonus-munching banks into food banks! Get in touch if you have ideas on this action and want to get involved: ukuncut@gmail.com . Watch this space for more info and updates. "Half a million people in the UK now rely on food banks. Benefit cuts, unemployment and the increased cost of living are causing a growth in hunger and poverty. "It's time to fight back against the austerity agenda where we live and work. There is an alternative. Stop punishing the poorest and least able to pay and target the mega-rich and...

The Sunday Times Rich List: the 1,000 richest people in the UK got £35 billion richer in 2012-3, expanding their wealth to £450 billion. The worse-off: the charities Oxfam and Church Action Poverty reckon that 500,000 in Britain today depend on food banks. They are building on figures from the Trussell Trust, one food-bank provider, which fed more than 350,000 people in 2012/13. As recently as 2009/10 it fed only 40,000. Bankers’ bonuses: they totalled £13 billion in 2011-2, about the same as in 2010-11. The hungry: to use a food bank, you must get a letter from a doctor or social worker or...

The launch, on average, of three food banks each week across Britain is a sign of our times. In spite of the success of the latest smart phones etc, capitalism is in decline. It can no longer afford the welfare state. So food banks have to pick up the pieces and fill the gaps. There are now more than eight million people whose income from “self-employment” and part-time jobs is precarious. We need a workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour movement, and serving the working class. The working week needs to be reduced to 30-hours with no loss of pay and the minimum wage raised...

A few weeks ago the BBC published an article on how to eat for less than £1 a day, in reference to the Global Poverty Project’s challenge to “Live Below the Line”. Others have explained better than I could why the diet suggested in the article is totally unrealistic (for example, it is not possible to buy a quarter of a courgette). There’s a good blogpost on atheltheunread.wordpress.com. Last week, the BBC published a follow-up article with “Readers’ Stories” of living on little money. A few of the stories included phrases like “my dog eats better than me”, “porridge week”, “it is very lonely...