Social Policy: Poverty

Social Policy: Poverty

Social Policy: Poverty

Rahma Yaxye

Defining the extent of poverty

We are living in through an era of radical socioeconomic change; increases in unemployment, high welfare dependence, debt, and slashes on government public spending. This is something the western world has come to deal with, whereas many societies across the globe have always been soiled in poverty from Africa to Asia, also South America. In our society, poverty is significant because it wrongfully defined who you are. Socioeconomic ultimately shape your future from where you live, highest form education you receive, career view, and the even you’re children’s future. It tends to naturally fall in to a cycle, often hard to escape. In Britain, it has taken poverty seriously to tackle it is there are policies from Blair’s increase spending on education, benefit increase for poorer families, and free NHS.

Sociologists have two important different definitions of poverty. Firstly, it is absolute poverty, which means the absence of the bare minimum of shelter, money, and food to preserve a healthy life. This is the common definition associated with poverty, the images of countries that are labelled “The Third World” fall under this definition. Even in Great Britain, in 2001 it was reported over 5 million lived in absolute poverty. On the hand, there is relative poverty which means possessing less money and materialistic things those others in the same society almost the very brink of absolute poverty. According to “optimumpopulation.org” – 40% of UK children live in relative poverty. As relative poverty deals with more of an socioeconomic status on an area, someone earning less than £15,000 a year in Great Britain would be considered to be living in some degree of poverty. However, that amount would be secure to live with somewhere else. It also means that someone living poverty in a relative aspect has food, shelter, and money for necessities independently. On the other hand, “Absolute...

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