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Homelessness levels in Britain are expected to double in the wake of the pandemic with an estimated 2 million families, including one million children, likely to struggle to feed, keep warm or stay clean as the recession wears off. worsens, according to a study.
The estimates, conducted for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), described the “increasing, intensifying” levels of extreme poverty experienced by some of the poorest households in the country in recent years, and highlight a social security system that increasingly it fails to protect the most vulnerable in society.
Cuts in social security rates over the past decade, along with design flaws in universal credit and disability benefits, as well as the harsh impact of welfare reforms, such as benefit caps, were driving strong increases in extreme poverty even before the arrival of Covid, the study says. .
Homelessness was most noticeable in areas of the northeast and northwest of England and parts of inner London. More than one in 100 households in Blackpool, Kingston upon Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham and Salford were in extreme poverty.
Poverty and British households
The study defines homelessness as the inability to pay for two or more housing, food, heat, lighting, weather-appropriate clothing, or basic toiletries during the past month, or a weekly income after housing costs of or less from £ 70 for a single adult or £ 145 for a couple with two children.
More than half of the households have been without food
More than half of the indigent people were without food most often, followed by adequate clothing (49%) and basic toiletries (43%). A third of indigent households did not report any income. While single people were more likely to be homeless, families, especially single mothers, were most at risk, according to the study.
Helen Barnard, Director of JRF, said: “Our social security system must act as an anchor to hold us together when we are swept up in powerful currents like job loss, illness or broken relationships. But right now, our system is not doing enough to protect people from homelessness. “
He added: “It is appalling that so many people are going through this harrowing and degrading experience, and we should not tolerate it. No one in our society should be able to afford to eat or stay clean and protected. We can and must do more. “
The research was conducted by the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research at Heriot-Watt University, its third study of its kind since 2015. About 1 million households experienced homelessness in 2019, 35% more since 2017, equivalent to 2.4 million people. These rates are likely to have doubled in recent months, he said.
The report will pressure ministers to commit to maintaining the universal credit boost of £ 20 a week in April, saying it will decide in the new year. But it also highlights long-term concerns about the adequacy of the UK’s social security system after a decade of austerity and months of economic recession ahead.
A government spokesperson said: “Ensuring that every child gets the best start in life is critical to our efforts to increase opportunity across the country, which is why we have increased the living wage for all and increased social support by the thousands. million, including £ 170 million. to help families stay warm and well fed during Christmas. “
While welcoming the government’s pandemic measures, including the temporary increase of £ 20 a week, the study said they were not enough to prevent some people from slipping into destitution and that the problem of extreme poverty would accelerate if they were not keep the fringe benefits.
The underlying fragility of the welfare system was highlighted by the finding that half of indigent households in 2019 received or had applied for universal credit. The need to repay loans in advance to help them get through the five-week delay for a first benefit payment often left people with little to live on, according to the report.
It was surprising how Britain increasingly relied on charitable food banks as a “basic welfare answer” to the growing destitution of poverty, according to the report. “It seems unwise to rely on this voluntary effort to ensure that the basic physiological needs of large numbers of UK residents are met.”
Although about one in five homeless people have complex needs, such as homelessness or drug and alcohol problems, most do not. One in seven homeless people had an insecure job or had zero-hour contracts. More than half (54%) of people in extreme poverty had a chronic health problem or a disability.
Migrants, many of whom were ineligible for social assistance, were disproportionately likely to be destitute. “That everyone present on British soil during a (global) national health emergency has access to the basic essentials essential for survival is the least that a rich and humane society should be committed to guaranteeing,” the study concluded.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “No child in Britain should be hungry or lacking in essentials. The government must do more to support struggling families facing real hardship this winter. They must make sense and eliminate the planned cut to universal credit, which will mean 20 pounds a week for 6 million families ”.
