Jennifer Hall
The Practising Midwife
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-----Original Message-----
From: Post embargo JRF press releases
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of JRF Mailing List
Sent: 13 December 2005 16:00
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Subject: JRF press release: UK poverty falls overall, but rates increase
among disabled people
Three out of every ten disabled adults of working age are living in poverty
in Britain - a higher proportion than a decade ago and double the rate among
non-disabled adults. Disabled adults are now more likely to live in poor
households than either pensioners or children, according to the latest
progress report on tackling social exclusion for the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation.
Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK 2005 by authors from the
New Policy Institute shows that many more of the 50 indicators under
scrutiny for the past seven years have improved over the latest year than
have grown worse. But it highlights particular problems among disabled
people, including those who work for low wages as well as those who would
like employment, but cannot get a job.
The report finds that:
* One in four people aged 45 to 64 are affected by impairment and long-term
sickness, but it is twice as common among the poorest fifth of the
population.
* Around 800,000 disabled people between 25 and retirement age are classed
as 'economically inactive, but wanting work'. This compares with only
200,000 who are officially counted as 'unemployed'.
* For any given level of educational qualification, a disabled person is
around three times as likely to lack but want work as non-disabled people.
The rate among disabled graduates (14 per cent) is higher than that for
non-disabled adults with no qualifications at all.
* Disability increases the chances of low pay for those people who are in
work. This applies at every level of qualification and irrespective of
gender or whether jobs are full- or part-time.
Guy Palmer, co-author of the report, said: "Both child poverty and pensioner
poverty are decreasing because the Government brought in policies to address
them. But poverty among disabled people is high and rising, with little by
way of Government policy, thus far, to help. Tackling disabled poverty needs
to be made a top priority."
Peter Kenway, co-author of the report, said: "A disabled person is more
likely to be either low paid or out of work than a non-disabled person with
similar qualifications. The inescapable conclusion is that the labour market
discriminates against disabled people. Policies to help disabled people into
work will only have limited success unless they focus on changing employer
attitudes."
Looking across the 50 indicators, the monitoring report shows that 20 have
improved in the past year and 20 have held steady, while four show mixed
progress and only two have grown worse. Over a longer, five-year timescale,
18 indicators show improvement, while six have worsened. Other key findings
from the 2005 report concern:
Poverty
-------
* The number of people in Britain who live in income poverty has continued
to fall to around 12 million on the latest figures. This is nearly two
million below the peak reached in the early 1990s and lower than at any time
since 1987.
* The proportion of pensioners in poor households has fallen from 27 to 22
per cent, and the proportion of children from 32 to 29 per cent. However,
the proportion of working-age adults without children who are poor is, at
best, unchanged at 17 per cent.
* The proportion of children who are in workless households in the UK is the
highest in Europe. This is mainly due to a relatively high number of
workless lone parent families. Half all children living with one parent are
in income poverty.
Low pay
-------
* Despite the importance of employment as a way of reducing poverty, finding
a job does not guarantee an income above the poverty line. Half all children
in poverty now live in households where someone is in paid work - most of
them in two-adult families.
* Low pay is the main reason for so much in-work poverty. Around five
million employees aged over 22 were low-paid in 2005 - defined as earning
less than £6.50 an hour. This includes half of all part-time workers.
* Taking part-time and full-time jobs together, two-thirds of all low-paid
workers are women. Three out of ten low-paid workers aged 25 and over are
employed by the public sector.
Education
---------
* Lack of work and low pay are strongly related to educational
qualifications. People in their late 20s with no qualifications run an 18
per cent risk of unemployment, compared with a 5 per cent average. The risks
of low pay for this group are 50 per cent, compared with an average of 25
per cent (falling to 10 per cent among graduates).
* The proportion of 16-year-olds in England and Wales who obtained fewer
than five GCSEs in 2005 (12 per cent) was the same as in 1999.
Three-quarters of 16-year-olds from low-income families failed to get five
'good' passes at grades A to C, which was double the rate for other
students.
* In English and Welsh primary schools, the proportion of 11-year-olds
reaching level 4 in standard tests for English and Maths has improved,
although more slowly since 1999. However, 40 per cent of children from
low-income families failed to reach this target - double the proportion
among other pupils.
Health
------
* Deep and persistent health inequalities remain. For example, babies born
to parents from manual working backgrounds are 25 per cent more likely to
have a low birthweight than those born to white-collar parents.
* Infant deaths are 50 per cent more likely among babies in families from
manual backgrounds.
* Death rates among 35- to 64-year-olds for heart disease and lung cancer -
the biggest causes of premature death - are around twice as high among those
from manual backgrounds as among others in the same age group.
Communities
-----------
* Burglaries and violence with injury have fallen to half the levels of ten
years ago. Even so, unemployed people are three times as likely as average
to become victims of violent crime and lone parents are twice as likely as
average to be burgled.
* Around 200,000 households were accepted by local authorities as homeless
in 2004; marking a 20 per cent increase in the past five years. Most of the
rise has been among households without dependent children, who now make up
two-thirds of the total.
Note to Editors
---------------
'Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2005' by Guy Palmer, Jane Carr and
Peter Kenway is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and available
from York Publishing Services, 64 Hallfield Road, Layerthorpe, York YO31 7ZQ
(01904 430033) price £16.95 plus £2 p&p.
A summary of findings is attached, and the full report is available as a
free download from http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=745.
All the statistics in this press release, plus many more, are also presented
and discussed in depth on the JRF-sponsored http://www.poverty.org.uk
website.
For further information, contact:
---------------------------------
Guy Palmer (NPI Director and author) 020-7721 8421 (office) 07940 592016
Peter Kenway (NPI Director and author) 020-7721 8421 (office) 07711 068744
Issued by David Utting, JRF Associate Director (Public Affairs) 020-7278
9665 / 01727 762855 / 07930 313790 / [log in to unmask]
______________________________________________________________________
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Seeking solutions to social problems
The Homestead 40 Water End York YO30 6WP
Tel +44 (0)1904 629241 Fax +44 (0)1904 620072
Web www.jrf.org.uk Charity number 210169
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______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Seeking solutions to social problems
The Homestead 40 Water End York YO30 6WP
Tel +44 (0)1904 629241 Fax +44 (0)1904 620072
Web www.jrf.org.uk Charity number 210169
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