Category: #ToryEconomy

#ToryEconomy

Austerity and inequality fuelling mental illness, says top UN envoy

From the Guardian: Austerity, inequality and job insecurity are bad for mental health and governments should counteract them if they want to face up to the rising prevalence of mental illness, the UN’s top health envoy has said.

Dr Dainius Pūras said measures to address inequality and discrimination would be far more effective in combatting mental illness than the emphasis over the past 30 years on medication and therapy.

“This would be the best ‘vaccine’ against mental illness and would be much better than the excessive use of psychotropic medication which is happening,” said Pūras, who as the UN’s special rapporteur on health reports back to the UN human rights council in Geneva.

He said that since the 2008 financial crisis, policies that accentuated division, inequality and social isolation have been bad for mental equilibrium. “Austerity measures did not contribute positively to good mental health,” he said. “People feel insecure, they feel anxious, they do not enjoy good emotional wellbeing because of this insecurity situation.”

[Read full article on Guardian website…]

“You can’t really win”: 4m Britons in poverty despite having jobs

From The Guardian: Gemma struggled to make ends meet when taking home £399.69 a month for working 18 hours a week as a cashier at Betfred.

Even with tax credits and child benefit topping up her meagre wages, it was a constant struggle to pay for the essentials and Gemma fell behind on her bills. She was already receiving letters, phone calls, texts and emails threatening legal action over previous unpaid bills, as well as £400 of benefit overpayments that had to be repaid.

Official data released on Tuesday showed that unemployment remains at its lowest level since the mid-1970s but that means little to the 4 million workers in the UK like Gemma, who are living in poverty.

[Read full article on Guardian website…]

UK economy £100bn smaller because of austerity – thinktank

From The Guardian: Austerity policies from the Treasury have resulted in slower growth in every year since 2010 and left each household £300 a month worse off as a result, a thinktank has said.

The New Economics Foundation said its analysis of the impact of tax and spending changes since the Conservatives came to power, first as part of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, had left the economy £100bn smaller than it would otherwise have been.

Although the peak impact of the attempt to reduce a record peacetime budget deficit occurred during the first two years of the 2010-15 parliament, the thinktank said austerity was still acting as a drag on output.

The NEF said the cumulative effect of tax, public spending and welfare adjustments on growth by the end of the 2018-19 financial year would be to leave the average household £3,629 a year worse off – the equivalent of £1,495 per person.

[Read full article on Guardian website…]

Workers hit by longest pay squeeze in more than 200 years

From Welfare Weekly: Working people in some parts of the UK have been hit by the longest squeeze to the wage packets in more than two centuries, with some earning up to £100 a week less in real-terms compared to 2008, shocking new analysis reveals.

These are the findings of new research by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), who say average take home pay is still well behind pre-crisis levels.

[Read full article on Welfare Weekly…]

Four million British workers live in poverty, charity says

From The Guardian: More than 500,000 British workers have been swept into working poverty over the past five years, according to a report that shows the number of people with a job but living below the breadline has risen faster than employment.

In the latest sign that the link between entering work and making ends meet has become increasingly frayed in 21st-century Britain, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said that the number of workers in poverty hit 4 million last year, meaning about one in eight in the economy are now classified as working poor.

Nearly all of the increase comes as growing numbers of working parents find it harder to earn enough money to pay for food, clothing and accommodation due to weak wage growth, an erosion of welfare support and tax credits and the rising cost of living.

Half a million more children have become trapped in poverty over the past five years as a direct consequence, reaching 4.1 million last year, the charity’s report added. It means that in a typical classroom of 30 children, nine would come from a household in poverty.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of the JRF, said: “We are seeing a rising tide of child poverty as more parents are unable to make ends meet, despite working. This is unacceptable.”

[Read full article on Guardian website…]

Millions to lose £52 a week with Universal Credit, report shows

From The Observer: A comprehensive analysis of the impact of Universal Credit, compiled by the Policy in Practice consultancy, found that almost two in five households in receipt of benefits would lose an average of £52 a week.

While Universal Credit has already been rolled out in some areas for new claims, a crunch is due to come next year when millions are moved from the current system to the new programme, which rolls several benefits into a single payment.

Some 2.8 million homes would see their income cut under the Universal Credit system, according to the analysis.

According to the research, a million homeowners currently receiving tax credits will be worse off under the new system. They will lose an average of £43 a week.

Researchers found that 600,000 working single parents receiving the current tax credits system will be worse off, losing £16 a week on average. About 750,000 households on disability benefits will be worse off. Their average loss is £76 a week.

The self-employed lose out under rules in Universal Credit that assume a minimum income from self-employment, usually £1,187 a month. It means that 600,000 self-employed people will be worse off.

Under the tax credits system, payments are made for more than two children if they were born before 6 April 2017. As a result, 300,000 families will be worse off, losing an average of £40 a week each.

[Read full article on Guardian website…]

Private water company bosses have pocketed £175 million in last 5 years

From Morning Star: Bosses of England’s nine private water companies have pocketed £175 million in pay and benefits in the last five years, general union GMB disclosed today.

GMB, which has thousands of members working in the water industry, revealed the pay packages as part of its “Take Back the Tap” campaign, calling for the water industry to be returned to public ownership.

Since water privatisation in 1989, customers’ bills have increased by 40 per cent in real terms.

The union says the industry’s top 54 executives pocketed an enormous £40.3 million in 2017 alone. Executive directors and senior management received an average of £746,296 each in salaries, pension contributions, bonuses and benefits.

[Read full article on Morning Star website…]

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