We wouldn’t describe this as being plunged into poverty, no…..

A claim here about changes to disability benefits:

Although all existing universal credit claimants and new claimants with severe or terminal conditions will now be protected, from next year other claimants with limited health capacity for work will see monthly awards cut from £423.27 to £217.26.

The committee chair, Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, said, “We welcome the concessions that the government made to the niversal Credit bill; but there are still issues with these welfare reforms not least with the cut in financial support that newly sick and disabled people will receive.”

Abrahams said that on the government’s own analysis approximately 50,000 people who claim universal credit from next April after developing a health condition or becoming disabled will be plunged into poverty by 2030 as a result of cuts.

It’s that “plunged” that doesn’t sit right with us.

So, poverty is defined as less than 60% of median household income, adjusted for household size (before or after housing costs, to taste). Median household income is £37,000. True, we’re ignoring the household size element, but that makes the poverty line £22,000 (with rounding). This cut - a cut in benefits that can be claimed in the future - is some 10% of that.

Now, yes, this might not be enjoyable, it’s even possible that it’s not a good thing. But no, we do not think that a 10% cut in potential income is being “plunged” into anything and certainly not the Dickensian deprivation we’re meant to think of when we hear the word “poverty”. It is our firm conviction and contention that the UK has no actual poverty. We have inequality of incomes, most certainly we do, but no actual poverty by any historical or global standard.

To remind, a single person household in the UK on £20k a year (that £22k poverty line minus the £2k disability benefit not gained) is still in the top 7% of all global incomes. Yes, that is after adjusting for prices across geography. That is not poverty. To claim that it is is mere propaganda about inequality - which is, of course, why poverty is now defined today as relative, not absolute. To provide that propaganda opportunity.

Tim Worstall