By David Hanson MP / Latest News / • • / 0 Comments

Less than a third of Delyn workers earn what they need to live on

I have received figures from the Living Wage Campaign which show that 34.1% of people in work in Delyn earn less than they need to live on. The figure for Wales is 24.7%.

The Living Wage Campaign is an independent movement of businesses, organisations and people who believe a fair day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. They accredit businesses as Living Wage employers to demonstrate that they pay their staff a wage calculated on the real cost of living.

When you combine these dreadful figures with those of child poverty and employment you can see that Delyn is being left behind by the UK Government. We know that some parts of Delyn have child poverty rates, after housing costs, of 42.6% (Holywell Central ward). This is not just a problem isolated in small parts of the constituency. The figures show that child poverty is high in all areas of Delyn. A quick snapshot shows that poverty rates stand at: Read more “Less than a third of Delyn workers earn what they need to live on”

By David Hanson MP / Latest News / • • • • • / 0 Comments

Resolution Foundation Report: Child Poverty on the rise

I am deeply concerned by findings made by the Resolution Foundation, in their report ‘The Living Standards Audit 2018’, which shows that typical household incomes for working-age families grew by just 1.4% (in real terms) less than the average (2.1%) recorded between 1994 and 2007. This has resulted in inequality being little changed for the last decade and relative child poverty has “risen to its highest rate in at least 15 years, despite high levels of employment.”

The report states that working-age incomes in 2016-17 were just 4% higher than they were in 2006-07. When you focus on those on low to middle incomes, the Resolution Foundation notes, “the picture is even worse: growth of just 0.3% in 2016-17 left median incomes in the group entirely unchanged on the decade.” Read more “Resolution Foundation Report: Child Poverty on the rise”

By David Hanson MP / Latest News / • • / 0 Comments

Work and Pensions Questions: In Work Poverty

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Recently, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that there are an additional 400,000 children are now in poverty after seven years of Conservative austerity. This is due in no small part to the rise in in-work poverty,

I raised with the minister my concerns about the lack of action this Government has taken to secure decent jobs for the country and how their policies on social mobility have failed. As we have seen the chair of the Commission on social mobility resigned along with a number of other members.

The minister failed to address my question instead stating that they are tackling unemployment. What the minister didn’t note was the rise in insecure work and zero hours contracts.

By David Hanson MP / Latest News / / 0 Comments

Poverty in Wales

Figures released today in the report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation entitled ‘UK Poverty 2017’ has shown that the percentage of working-age adults who are in poverty has risen under the Conservative Government. Wales now has the highest poverty rate in the UK, only slightly lower than London, in the UK. The percentage of working-age adults in Wales now in poverty stands at around 23% which has increased since 2003/04 to 2004/06 when the last substantive report was produced by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Showing that working-age poverty, which the last Labour Government reduced from the high in 1994/95 to 1996/97 of nearly 25%.

The report also shows that the pension poverty rate in Wales has increased under this UK Government as well. In 2010/11, when Labour departed from office, pensioner poverty stood at 12%; by 2015/16, it had risen to 21%. The largest increase in the whole of the UK.

Nationally an additional 700,00 UK children and pensioners have fallen into relative poverty- households with less than 60% the median income – over the past four years. Read more “Poverty in Wales”