Poverty: Do we really know the meaning of the word? (From The Argus)

Poverty: Do we really know the meaning of the word?

A FEW letters and stories recently have focused on a growing poverty problem in Brighton and Hove.

Most recently, T Williams (Letters, January 25) compares the plight of those less well-off here to those in Africa and other poverty-stricken countries, saying “charity begins at home”.

While there is something to be said for solving our own problems, I remember watching a programme about children in Zimbabwe whose parents cannot afford the two dollars a year it costs to send their child to school, and sometimes eat mud because there is no food.

Tom Lines (Letters, January 16) wrote to say children in Brighton and Hove are going short on bread and toothbrushes, which isn’t right.

Now we hear the Government wants to lower the benefits cap, meaning those “hardest hit” in Britain may have to scrape by on £26,000 a year.

In my local supermarket, you can buy a pack of two toothbrushes for 30p, a tube of toothpaste for 30p and a loaf of bread for 47p. Even if each person in a house got through a loaf of bread, a toothbrush and a whole tube of toothpaste every week, the total weekly outlay would still only be 92p a week.

£26,000 a year? Something doesn’t add up. This isn’t a rhetorical question: what’s going on?

Martin Arrowsmith, Dyke Road, Brighton

REGARDING the Government’s recent proposal to cap family benefits at £26,000 per household, it may be interesting to note my current salary for full-time employment is only two-thirds of this amount.

In 2001, I registered for Jobseekers’ Allowance (JSA) after completing military service. I was eligible to an Armed Forces pension of £5,700 a year. However, I was later told this nullified my entitlement to JSA. So, basically I was told to either find work or go hungry.

So I did. I swept the streets. That is how I feel the jobseekers’ system thanked me for paying my way since the age of 17, and acting in good faith by declaring my Forces pension.

It seems honest, hard workers such as myself – recently off sick for two days during the past six years – are being penalised for the benefit of those intent on staying at home and reaping better rewards than my hard-earned wages. Any comments?

James Mitchell, Hythe Road, Brighton

I WOULD like to have this sort of money to live on. Those moaning about their benefits being capped need to be taught how to housekeep. There are people working, with a mortgage, earning less. I live comfortably on far less, although know I no longer have a mortgage myself. As for poverty, it does not exist in England. Hard up, yes. Go to countries such as Africa, Peru and India to name a few – they have real poverty.

RNG McCormack, Langley Crescent, Woodingdean

TO ADD to the recent debate about housing benefit and Local Housing Allowance (LHA), I am unemployed and in my 50s, receiving JSA of £67.50 a week.

The rent for my nice bedsit – sharing shower and toilet facilities with other residents – is not unreasonable for Brighton and Hove: £90 a week.Electricity, which I use for lighting, heating and cooking, is not included, and costs me £12 to £15 a week using a coin meter. At times, this involves decisions about whether to cook or feel warm.

At the moment I receive LHA of £85pw, so I have to pay a £5 top-up to my landlord. Not too bad, one might think.

However, come February, my LHA will drop to £78 a week, requiring me to pay a further £7 a week.

It might not sound much, but it is quite a chunk to be taken from my limited income.

However, I must defend Councillor Jason Kitcat: he is right to say this is an issue with central Government, rather than a local issue. The recalculation of LHA on a 30th percentile – as opposed to a 50th percentile – of rents charged in an area has created an unreal benefits scenario whereby people such as myself could struggle.

The main problem with applying the 30th percentile in the Brighton and Hove area is that it’s spread too wide, allowing rents in cheaper, non-urban areas of the council’s catchment to be included in its calculation. Perhaps Coun Kitcat and others could spend some time lobbying the Government to restore the 50th percentile criterion, or have the boundaries within which the 30th percentile is calculated re-drawn.

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