BBC Radio Five Live today carried a segment on poverty. The first caller to the show related a shocking, real-life example of the levels of poverty and desperation some people are driven to under Tory policies:
His young pupil, who he thought was chewing gum, was so hungry he was eating the piece of plasticine he’d been given.
His mother was working.
Even though the school was trying to help by giving him large portions for his free school meals, that was his only significant meal of the day.
Comment:
The events the teacher related took place five years ago. Child poverty and in-work poverty have only increased since then – so this desperate picture is being recreated thousands, hundreds of thousands of times around the country.
Child poverty is a huge problem in the UK – over 300,000 children are excluded from the measurement.
One in eight people in poverty – more than half of the total – are working.
The Tories’ response? Just over a year ago, they abolished their child poverty unit.
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