Advertisement
Social Justice

Lord John Bird: Why can’t the government create a poverty prevention unit?

Big Issue founder Lord John Bird proposes the creation of a dedicated poverty prevention unit – but Conservative Baroness Buscombe declares it unnecessary

Big Issue founder Lord John Bird has asked why the government cannot put the prevention of poverty at the heart of all departments – but received a mixed response from the Under-Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

In the House of Lords today, cross-bencher Bird asked what steps the government was taking to prioritise their focus on the root causes of poverty and disadvantage.

“Could Her Majesty’s Government move inexorably towards a situation where we could put prevention right at the centre of all the work we do?” he asked. “We know that prevention pays off. We know that when money is spent on prevention, it reaps enormous benefits.

We know that when money is spent on prevention, it reaps enormous benefits

“Could Her Majesty’s Government look at the possibility of creating a Prevention Unit across both Houses and all parties? So that we could at last make sense of the need to prevent people falling into poverty, because too many people are stuck in poverty and are not getting out.”

Whilst “entirely agreeing” that the focus of tackling poverty must be on prevention, Conservative Baroness Buscombe, the DWP’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, said that the creation of a dedicated prevention unit was not required.

“We believe that the way to help people out of poverty is through employment, which is now at a record high level,” she said. “However, one in eight children across the UK still lives in a workless family, and we need to tackle that. A prevention unit is a great idea but the reality is that we can perform that function by working across government, as we are doing, on the strategy that we have now developed within work and pensions.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Baroness Buscombe continued: “New analysis carried out by the DWP shows that children living in workless families are significantly more disadvantaged and achieve poorer outcomes than other children, including those in lower-income working families. [The government policy paper] Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, published on 4 April, provides a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s outcomes now and in the future.”

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
DWP benefit reforms to get people into work are 'smokescreen for cuts', disability activist says
dwp secretary liz kendall
Disability benefits

DWP benefit reforms to get people into work are 'smokescreen for cuts', disability activist says

'Back to cost of living crisis': Households will be £770 worse off by next UK election, experts say
woman in supermarket
Cost of living crisis

'Back to cost of living crisis': Households will be £770 worse off by next UK election, experts say

Buffer zones outside abortion clinics are step in right direction – but other problems persist
Abortion

Buffer zones outside abortion clinics are step in right direction – but other problems persist

'Where will it stop?': DWP to get 'direct access to bank accounts' in benefit fraud crackdown
rachel reeves' autumn budget
Benefit fraud

'Where will it stop?': DWP to get 'direct access to bank accounts' in benefit fraud crackdown

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue