Sociology of Poverty: Causes, Impact, and Current Policies

This report delves into the sociology of poverty, discussing its causes, impact, and current policies. It explores the concept of poverty, different types of poverty, and the causes behind it. The report also examines the impact of the market on poverty and discusses the current policies implemented by the government to reduce poverty. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of these policies.

Sociology of poverty

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Poverty is the biggest issues that generally all country in the world faces. The poverty not
only put huge impact on the individual living standards and desires but it also put impact on the
economy of that particular country as well. The report will describe the concept of poverty and
the various causes of the poverty which lead to increment of poverty at the world level. The
report will also state the impact of the market on the poverty issues along with the current policy
the government launches in order to reduce it. In the same context, the report will also cover the
strength and weakness of the policy.
MAIN BODY
Concept of Poverty
Poverty is a situation arises or the situation when the income of the individual is less than
the threshold limit of poverty. In such situation that individual considered under the poverty line.
In UK, if the individual income is 60% below than the median household income, than such
individual in UK is consider under poverty line (World Bank, 2018). Generally there are three
types of poverty and which includes Absolute poverty, relative poverty and situational poverty.
 Absolute Poverty: This is a kind of poverty line in which the peoples faces the lack of
basic needs such as foods, clean water, house and health care. This poverty generally lead
to and causes the increment in the daily child death percentage.
 Relative Poverty: In this category an individual is consider as poor, when that people is
unable to manage the vacation, not able to send their children in high schools and also not
able to give gifts to their other family members. But they are able to meet their basic food
needs.
 Situational Poverty: This is a kind of poverty line which is arises on happening of an
uncertain event such as earthquakes, floods and even serious illness. The following
poverty is temporary and not permanent part of an individual (Kepuladze, 2019).
The welfare state help the poor people by the welfare regimes to reduce the stress of the poverty
line people and also protect the country. With the help of this the welfare state launches various
social policies, productive and protectionist regimes to reduce the poverty percentage. The
material and cultural deprivation also put the huge impact on the education and poverty of the
country. This indicate that the people are spending more of their income on the unnecessary

requirement such as long vacations rather than saving it for their children higher educations. The
criteria of the absolute poverty remain same even with the same growth in the economy but the
criteria of relative poverty changes with the change in the economic growth. The impact of the
poverty is that the people are not able to afford a substandard house for themselves (Zhang and
et.al., 2018). They are also not able to take care of their child and provide them nutritious foods
which put huge impact on the future of the nations because children are the future of every
country.
Causes of Poverty
The poverty is increases day by day at the world level and arises because of various
natural and unnatural situational events. The various causes of the poverty includes:
 Lack of knowledge and technical skills: This is one of the cause of poverty in the UK
which indicate that around five million of UK adults do not get proper education and
consider as illiterate (Gordon, 2017). Because of which they are unable to get jobs and
even they receive job the jobs are of low paid or part time works. The income from this is
not enough to fulfil their own and their family members needs.
 Social exclusion: Social exclusion is the cause which hurts the individual considered
under poverty line and lead to higher rates of poverty in the term of income, health and
educations. And it is because the part of rich people affect their mind and make them
realize that they are poor by not providing them resources, markets and public services.
 Cost of goods and services: In UK the main cause of the poverty is cost of goods and
services. It is because after the 2008 recession, there is a huge increment in the cost of the
general products between 2008 and 2014 (Booth, 2021). Because of which the living life
of the poor people are highly get affected as they are unable to afford food, house, water
etc. and this causes death of the people as well.
 Issues in home life: Because of the various home life issues such as domestic violence
abuses cause that children are either stop their studies and leave their home. Which
further cause that they become criminal and do criminal activities in order to feed
themselves and their family.
 Low rate of unemployment: Because of the low rate of unemployment in the country
also causes the poverty. It is because the poverty is happen when the individual income is

less that the unable to meet their basic needs. This indicate the direct link between the
unemployment and poverty.
 Inequality and marginalization: This is also one of the cause of poverty. It is because
the inequality among the people on the basis of their caste, gender, skin colour, age etc.
Because of this inequality the society do not treat them well and provide them necessary
resources to live their life (Whitehead, Taylor-Robinson and Barr, 2021).
 Poor health-care systems: Because of the poor health-care systems in the country, the
occurrence of child death at the time of their birth along with the mother is increases day
by day.
 Welfare dependency: Nowadays, many welfare state and charitable institution are
providing them various foods and house benefits, because of that they are overdependent
on the institutions. Now they are not interested in educating themselves, their children
and finding jobs which causes poverty in UK.
Impact of the market on the poverty
The market recession and depressions always have high impact on the poverty of the
country. The 2008 recession not only faces by the poor people but it also faces by the rich people
as well. But the difference is that the poor people feel huge impact of it while the rich individual
do not feel the recession impact. Along with that the pandemic of 2019 also lead to high inflation
rate in the whole worlds. Prices of the products are increasing drastically that a normal person
with low income can't able to afford it. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development estimate that because of global recession 5.5 percent of the potential output is lose
by the world (McCartney and et.al., 2019). The impact of which is that the global poverty is
increased along with the increase in the wealth inequality. Because of the pandemic the country
faces the recession situation, it affect the government policies and reduces their budgets deficit.
This affect the poor people directly.
Because of the high scope in the real estate sector, the prices of the houses are increasing
day by day, the impact of which is that the poor people can't afford houses at such high prices.
Before housing cost the absolute poverty percentage is 15% and after housing cost the poverty
percentage is increase to 20%. Because of the failure of the government programs, the food,
housing, healthcare, educations benefits etc. provided by the government is highly get affected

and now they are asking rich people for the funds to proceed for the policies. They receive the
fund from the public in the form of taxes and donations etc. But the political instability also put
positive impact as well on the poverty issues. It is because of the right to vote benefits that each
poor people held with themselves. With this right they are able to vote for their favourite
candidate and make them win the particular election. As of now the population of poor people
are higher then the other people. So every candidate in order to win the election provide them the
best services which ultimately lead to decrease in the poverty percentage.
Current policy to reduce poverty and its strength and weakness
In order to overcome the poverty problem and to reduce it, the government of the UK
launches various policies and programs such as 'social justice: transforming lives', social justice
outcomes framework etc. The strategy behind the policies are to improve the mental health of the
poor people and which is possible by providing them foods to eat, water to drink and house to
leave along with the cloths to wear (Hood and Waters, 2017). The current policy of the UK is
related to make alteration in tax and benefits systems as per the income level of the individuals.
The another policy is to promote the paid work. This policy indicate that the person who want to
work and are searching the work, the government of UK will help them and provide them
incentives to find the work. This reduces the child poverty and the government are providing
various educational services as well so that they can complete their education.
Strength of Policies
 The Policies improves the stability of the family by providing them a safe, secure and
nurturing environment to live.
 The government with the help of local authorities and large businesses help the troubled
families in changing their lifestyle and fulfil their desire.
 By providing the students with the online learning stage in this pandemic situation, the
government also improve the social mobility and stimulate the growth of the economy
(Featherstone and et.al., 2019).
 The policies also help the people who are addict to the drug, by restricting the supply of
the drug and also make them realize their power to become independent.
Weaknesses of Policies

 The policies is become weak when the people of the UK do not pay attention to the
policies.
 Because of various policies, the poor people are more dependent on the government
rather than earning themselves.
 The Policies of the UK are get failed to increase the unemployment rate because of the
low businesses in the country (Fitzsimons and et.al., 2017).
 The government is failed to make policies related to anti-poor law and also failed to make
reduction in the cost of the houses.
CONCLUSION
The report concludes the absolute and relative poverty along with the impact of the
poverty line on the individual living standards. The report also concludes the policies the
government launches which reduces the poverty but also causes different problems such welfare
dependency on the rich people and government. The report further state the impact of economy,
real estate sector and the political instability on the percentage of the poverty. The report also
describes that if a country want economic growth they have to attract more businesses toward
them. With the help of which the employment is increases and poverty is decreases
automatically.

REFERENCE
Books & Journals
World Bank, 2018. Poverty and shared prosperity 2018: piecing together the poverty puzzle.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019. A roadmap to reducing child
poverty. National Academies Press.
Kepuladze, G., 2019. TOWARD POVERTY ELIMINATION MANAGEMENT: POVERTY
DETERMINATION AND TYPOLOGIZATION PROBLEMS.
In ИННОВАЦИОННЫЕ НАУЧНЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ: ТЕОРИЯ,
МЕТОДОЛОГИЯ, ПРАКТИКА (pp. 91-93).
Zhang, H. and et.al., 2018. Targeted poverty alleviation using photovoltaic power: Review of
Chinese policies. Energy Policy, 120, pp.550-558.
Gordon, D., 2017. Measuring poverty in the UK. Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK, 1,
pp.17-40.
Booth, P. M., 2021. Child Poverty Policy: how to tackle the underlying or systemic causes of
child poverty.
Whitehead, M., Taylor-Robinson, D. and Barr, B., 2021. Poverty, health, and covid-19.
McCartney, G. and et.al., 2019. Impact of political economy on population health: a systematic
review of reviews. American journal of public health, 109(6), pp.e1-e12.
Hood, A. and Waters, T., 2017. Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2016-2017
to 2021-2022 (No. R127). IFS Report.
Featherstone, B. and et.al., 2019. Poverty, inequality, child abuse and neglect: Changing the
conversation across the UK in child protection?. Children and Youth Services
Review, 97, pp.127-133.
Fitzsimons, E. and et.al., 2017. Poverty dynamics and parental mental health: Determinants of
childhood mental health in the UK. Social Science & Medicine, 175, pp.43-51.
Online
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