THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The poor in Britain face a "perfect storm" of benefit cuts, rising living costs and a lack of jobs that result in a return to Victorian levels of inequality, a charity has said.
Oxfam has called for a rise in the minimum wage as part of a package of measures ahead of today's publication of official figures which they predicted would show an increase in the number of working people in poverty.
Already six in every 10 of the 7.9 million working-age adults in poverty are not from jobless households, it said, because austerity measures are "disproportionately impacting" the low-paid.
Thousands more than last year are turning to food banks and other charity facilities as average earnings have shrunk 4.4%, the report noted, while pay of FTSE 100 company directors rose 49%.
Improving that rate requires actions such as reversing cuts to working tax credits and reducing the amount of the new Universal Credit people lose when starting a job, from 65% to 55%.
Oxfam's director of UK poverty Chris Johnes said: "Despite the Government's rhetoric about making work pay, having a job is no longer necessarily enough to lift someone out of poverty. » | Telegraph reporters | Thursday, June 14, 2012
