Categories: uncategorized
Date: 06 July 2011 06:38:44
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a report about how basic living costs for families have increased. This link takes you to the summary, and this one to the report. I read it with interest because this annual report is often one used by papers such as the Daily Mail to show why two parent families are discriminated against and single parents almost encouraged by the state. I wanted to look at the data to see how the figures stack up and why it may be that a lone parent needs to earn £18,200 to reach the minimum standard of living but a married family need to earn £31,600 if one person works and £36,800 if both work.
One of the key differences relates to council tax. A married couple would be likely to have a larger house - and would have to pay full council tax whilst a single parent would be entitled to the single person discount of 25% and would be likely to live in a smaller property. This means that whilst "families" appear to be hit with a greater level of inflation and higher costs so are co-habiting couples without children or people who house share. Conversely it is not just "single parents" who have lower costs so do other single people including widows and widdowers who are living alone.
The report highlights how things like food and public transport have also increased in price. If you do not have/ choose to use a car as many people on minimum incomes don't then if you have two adults paying for public transport it will inveribly cost more and the cost will be likely to be higher if both parents are working and have to get to work in this way. The only "fair" comparison would be if you were looking at a single parent and a married couple with one car whose journies took equal amounts of time.
Moving away from the comparison between single parent families and married ones the report also shows how inequality and poverty are growing in the UK as a result of changes in the taxation and welfare systems. Families with young children who require childcare appear to be most badly hit. Yesterday the Methodist Church conference had a session where it recieved the Missing Generation Report produced by Liz Clutterbuck. This report focused on people aged 20-40 and highlighted that this is the age where people will have young children. Thus, if we are to take engaging with the Missing Generation seriously we need to take on board and study reports such as the Joseph Rowntree one I am discussing here and work out how we, as a Church, both locally and nationally in denominational and universal terms can respond to the lived implications of it.
The additional costs incurred by rural communities and thus the increase of "rural poverty" is something the Rowntree report also highlights. Again, if people are looking at engaging different geographical communities and the issues they face then this becomes a useful and important report to read and think through in terms of how to work with the resulting issues.
The report is focusing on the minimum income standard (MIS) and they define this as:"A minimum standard of living in Britain today includes, but is more than just, food, clothes and shelter. It is about having what you need in order to have the opportunities and choices necessary to participate in society".
I want for a moment to think about what this statement and measurement means for churches. What do we expect people to have in order to have the opportunities and choices necessary to participate in church, fully? I ask this question aware that most churches often have that thing they say about, "we don't anybody excluded because of cost and so if you can't afford it speak to us in confidence", but it takes an awful lot of courage to break through the self-respect barrier and do so, if you know who to speak to in the first place. It also involves people already being part of a congregation (in what ever form that takes) for others to recognise who may need help but be too proud to ask. In many churches social events double as opportunities to invite friends (engage in mission/ outreach) and raise funds for the church. For somebody to comfortably engage with this form of outreach they need to be able to buy themselves a ticket and one for somebody else. For those below the Christian MIS this choice does not exist.
Engagement in small groups can be another area where this type of issue exists. It might only be a few quid for the study text, but that few quid might be the weeks money for the electric meter. Often, I acknowledge, that people are offered help, but this is difficult. Firstly, people are desperate to be able to manage themselves and secondly it alters the power relationship and so in a supposed egalitarian group there is still that uneasy knowledge, if only between two people, that someone is there only because of somebody elses charity. It is very difficult to have to acknowledge that you can't manage to pay for x,y or z course or trip for your child because your income is below what the church expects everybody to be able to manage, however kind people are being about it.
I am not suggesting that things should be free, or provided at a cost below what is feesible but I am saying that we need to bear in mind these issues and find ways to creatively engage with them. One way might be by asking for donations, but saying the cost of the course is x. Most people, I suggest, would be willing to pay the cost if they were able. Another way is by advertising service opportunties for big events rather than just saying we want to organise a trip to. For example if the church were thinking of organising a trip to somewhere like Greenbelt they might want to include in their publicity materials ways to volunteer and so get your ticket for a few hours work each day. Similarly, if the church has single parents within it they might want to choose conferences that do single parent discounts or such like. If people are able to pay a full price but are entitled to a discount people might want to club together to use the discounts to pay for somebody who cannot meet the MIS. There are all sorts of creative opportunities available which we could engage in. For more ideas watch this space. Writing this I realise that I have lived for years below the MIS yet have maintained the middle class lifestyle and many of the choices. I think it were time this blog, for a few days at least, were turned over to some practical thinking outside the box based on experience both inside and outside the church.