JK Rowling has
said the government is out of touch
with poor people and should focus on helping them into work rather than stigmatising them and hitting them with
more cuts.
Writing in
her role as president of the single parent support group Gingerbread,
the Harry Potter author criticized the coalition's
welfare reforms and the characterization of people as either strivers or skivers.
"The government mantra that work is the best route out of poverty is ringing increasingly hollow, with
nearly one in three children whose single parent works part-time still growing
up in poverty," she said. "Rather than focusing on ever more austerity measures, it is investment in
single-parent employment that will
allow single parents to work their own way out of poverty."
The attack by
Rowling comes almost five years to the day since she
donated £1m to Labour, criticizing
the Tory message that "a childless, dual-income,
married couple is more deserving of a financial pat on the head than those struggling, as I once was, to keep their families afloat in
difficult times". It follows the announcement that the
Tories will unveil plans for a tax break
for married couples in this year's autumn statement.
The award-winning author was herself a single mother
struggling to make ends meet when she wrote the first of her best-selling books
in the 1990s. She said her self-esteem was tested at the time and single
parents were still being stigmatized.
"I find the language of 'skivers versus strivers'
particularly offensive when it comes to single parents, who are already working
around the clock to care for their children," she wrote on the Gingerbread
website. "Such rhetoric drains confidence and self-esteem from those who
desperately want, as I did, to get back into the job market."
Office
for National Statistics figures show that 59% of single parents in the UK are already in work. Gingerbread
says the government could save £436m a year by
getting just 5% more into employment.
Rowling wrote that to help single parents back into
work, the government should focus on affordable
childcare, employee training, make
employers embrace flexible hours, and
take "a long, hard look at low pay".
Referring to a
comment by the welfare minister and former investment banker Lord Freud last
year that "people who are poorer should be prepared to take the biggest
risks since they've got least to lose!", Rowling
wrote that it showed "a profound disconnect with people struggling to keep their heads above water".
She said more single-parent families would lose than
gain under the government's flagship
universal credit payment, including many in work, because of gaps in childcare
provision for many of the poorest families and a loss of support for single
parents under 25.
The current
benefits system takes into account whether you have a child in determining your
personal allowance but under the reforms a
single parent under 25 will receive the same rate of allowance as an under-25
without any children.
Click HERE to read an article on child poverty from The Guardian!
Click HERE for a map on child poverty in the UK!
To do/questions:
- Why is Harry Potter sleeping under the stairs?!
- Read the text on Rowling's opinions regarding the causes of child poverty in the UK and explain the words and expressions in bold.
- Does Rowling think the poor should do like she did: rely on themselves to get out of poverty?
- Where are there most poor families in the UK and where are there the least (cf. the map and article)?
- Why is the percentage of poor families highest in the largest urban areas?
