Poverty stats follow same old pattern but with a twist

Last week I had a dilemma. What to wear to a poverty and social exclusion conference?  I know that seems shallow given the serious context, but something just feels wrong about sitting in a nice room in smart clothes discussing how many people can’t afford to clothe their kids properly. When I first started working after a period of very little money I only had one smartish outfit I’d bought from a charity shop, so no pesky choices back then.  With the rise in food banks, tougher benefit sanctions and zero hours contracts it feels like things have actually gotten far worse in the decade or so since I had to sign on. But have they? The Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey is the largest of its kind, with an additional booster sample for Scotland funded by the Scottish Government.  Led by academic researchers, it aims to provide reliable figures on poverty across the UK. Nicola Sturgeon kicked off the conference.  She obviously cares and understands the issues, but she’s no daft either and knows that reducing poverty and inequality are potential vote winners.  The presentations over the rest of the day were cut from the same cloth – good quality but pretty predictable. And depressing.   The researchers found that poverty is back on the rise, and we’re nowhere near hitting our targets on child poverty. One in 20 people living in Scotland can’t afford to eat properly. One in 14 can’t afford basic items of clothing like a warm coat.

It feels like things have actually gotten far worse in the decade or so since I had to sign on. But have they?

But there were some surprises. Despite what we hear about rural deprivation, rural poverty levels are apparently lower than urban levels. Cue lots of muttering from the floor, and lots of people keen to get a closer look at the data. The research also found that social exclusion in terms of services is not significantly higher in poorer neighbourhoods.  Poorer areas appear to be well-served by commercial services such as corner-shops, post offices, transport and banks (they didn’t mention the easy access to “friendly” high street loan sharks).  What poorer neighbourhoods lack are things like nurseries, evening classes, community centres, youth clubs, sports facilities – exactly the types of services that could be provided by the third sector, so something for us to think about. The biggest surprise was that Scotland is actually doing marginally better than the rest of the UK. “Only” 18% of adults and children in Scotland are poor, compared with 22% across UK. This was in part explained by housing, and the relative availability of affordable housing in Scotland.  But there were lots of unanswered questions about other possible causes and whether different policies in Scotland have had any impact. I’m sure the Deputy First Minister would spin it that way, but it’s hard to assess whether the difference is down to increased employment, greater public spending or something else entirely. It’s great to have a quality, independent source of information on poverty like the PSE survey data that can help us understand what’s going on, but it is difficult to interpret some of the findings.  And do the most vulnerable households and younger people ever respond to surveys like this?  It’s only with stories from those experiencing poverty and initiatives like the Poverty Truth Commission that we see the faces behind the statistics.