Assignment On Uk And The Reduction Of Poverty

Running head: UK AND THE REDUCTION OF POVERTY
POVERTY AS A DIMINISHING SOCIAL PROBLEM IN THE WAKE OF UK’S
AFFLUENCE IN THE LAST 20 YEARS
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Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

UK AND THE REDUCTION OF POVERTY1
As opined by Cummins (2018), the wicked problem of poverty is one of the most critical
social problems that the different nations of the world are facing in the present times, and it is
seen that it dramatically affects the growth or the development attained by the nations. Gallent,
Mace and Tewdwr-Jones (2017) are of the viewpoint that one of the root causes of the social
problem of poverty faced by the different nations of the world can be ascribed to the evil of the
unequal distribution of wealth and also the excessive capitalist tendencies on the part of the
business corporations operational in the various countries. However, in the particular context of
the nation of UK, it had been seen that the poverty rate of the concerned nation had declined
substantially because of the different initiatives undertaken by the national government of the
concerned nation (Paugam 2016). In this relation, it needs to be said that the affluence shown by
the national government of UK in the past 20 years had directly contributed towards the
reduction of the social problem of poverty in the UK (Lansley and Mack 2015). The purpose of
this essay is to show that the social problem of poverty had become a diminishing issue in the
nation of UK in the last 20 years in the wake of the affluence shown by the concerned nation and
also the different initiatives or the policies formulated by the national government of UK.
The different employment opportunities created by the nation of UK in the last 20 years had
helped the people of the concerned nation to earn adequate amount of wages which in turn had
led to the effective fulfilment of their psychosocial needs (Howard, Garnham, Fimister and Veit-
Wilson 2001). According to Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), an individual can be considered
to live below the line of poverty “When a person’s resources (mainly their material resources)
are not sufficient to meet their minimum needs (including social participation)” (Baudrillard
2016). On the other hand, Clarke and Critcher (2016) have defined the condition of poverty in
which the individuals are not even able to earn the necessary amount of money through which

UK AND THE REDUCTION OF POVERTY2
they would be able to sustain themselves or their family members. As discussed by Wehrhahn
(2019), there are various factors which contribute towards the social problem of poverty like the
unequal distribution of wealth, lack of educational or employment opportunities, societal
condition and others. As per the statistics revealed by the “Institute for Fiscal Studies”, around
21.1% of the people in the nation of UK live in relative poverty in comparison to more than
31.9% of the people in the nation of India who live in the state of absolute poverty (Nayak 2019).
It is true that the poverty percentage of the nation of the UK, when compared with that of the
USA (13.7% in 2015), is higher but when the reduction (33% in 2009) in the poverty percentage
attained by the concerned nation in the last six years is being taken into account it becomes
apparent that poverty in the UK had reduced in a substantial manner (Valença 2015). Gallent,
Mace and Tewdwr-Jones (2017) are of the viewpoint that the more significant amount of
employment opportunities which are available to the ordinary people of UK in the present times
is one of the most critical factors for the reduction in the poverty percentage of the concerned
nation.
As discussed by Zald (2017), the nation of UK in the present times had become the
business hub of the entire world itself, and some of the largest business corporations of the world
are operational in the concerned nation. This is important because the presence of these large
number of business corporations ensures the fact that the people of the nation under discussion
here have an adequate amount of employment opportunities which in turn gets reflected in the
relatively low unemployment rate of the nation (Hough 2017). As a matter of fact, it is seen that
the unemployment rate of the nation of UK (3.5%) is way lower than even some of the first
world nations like USA (3.8%), Australia (5.7%) and others (Strange 2018). This means that
unlike the earlier times when the people of the concerned nation struggled to get adequate

UK AND THE REDUCTION OF POVERTY3
employment opportunities in the present times, the people have adequate employment options
(Honkanen and Pulkka 2016). More importantly, as stated by Caradonna (2017), the association
of UK with the European Union much helped the people of the concerned nation to get adequate
employment opportunity by helping in the expansion of trade and commerce within the
framework of the concerned nation. It is true that the wages which are being offered to the
workers in the nation of UK is way lower than the ones that are being offered to the workers in
the other nations like USA, Australia and others however at the same time it is seen that it is
adequate to help the individuals to sustain themselves as well as their family members in an
effective manner (Kirk 2017). In this relation, it needs to be said that the national government of
UK over the years had formulated different kinds of legislations or regulations for the reduction
in the wage discrepancies like the Fair Work Policy, Equal Remuneration Act and others (Bartels
2018). In the light of these aspects, it can be said that the different kinds of initiatives undertaken
by the national government of UK had directly contributed to the resolution of the problem of
poverty within the concerned nation (McKenzie 2015).
Hoekstra et al. (2018) are of the viewpoint that the educational qualifications of the
individuals greatly determines the number or for that matter the number of employment
opportunities which are available to them and thereby the fact whether they belong to the poverty
zone or not. In the particular framework of the nation of UK, it is seen that the national
government had made it mandatory for the children of the concerned nation to have at least
primary education through the Elementary Education Act, Education Act 2011 and others
(Cummins 2018). In this relation, it needs to be said that the primary objective of the national
government of the nation under discussion here is to ensure the fact that the people of the
concerned nation would have the necessary education which is needed to get adequate