Poverty Worksheet

  • Poverty is when a person actually is or feels himself to be short of the things that are essential for living.
  • Wealth is when a person has a vast surplus of things essential for life and has money tied up in extra possessions such as fine pictures or valuable jewels.
  • Primary poverty or absolute poverty is when a person does not have enough food to eat, or shelter or any of the things that are absolutely essential for life.
  • Secondary poverty or relative povertyis when a person does not have the things that a society considers important for decent life.

Who is poor?

There are two ways of describing what it is to be poor:

  • Primary poverty or absolute poverty, is when a person does not have enough food to eat, or shelter or any of the things that are absolutely essential for life. Very few people in Britain suffer from primary poverty. Mostly, people who suffer this kind of poverty live in countries without a social welfare system of any kind.
  • Secondary poverty or relative poverty, is when a person does not have the things that a society considers important for decent life. A large number of people suffer secondary poverty in Britain. If you do not have good quality food, you wear very cheap clothing and cannot afford a TV or some of the other things that people take for granted; then you are suffering from secondary poverty.

Figures have shown that the people in Britain who suffer from secondary poverty tend to be in one or more of the following categories:

  • the elderly living on a fixed income or a state pension
  • the disabled
  • low paid people with large families
  • single parents
  • people from ethnic minorities living in inner cities
  • the unemployed
  • people living in the declining industrial regions of the North of England, Scotland and in S. Wales

Poverty in Britain tends to be relative. In 1949, no-one but the very wealthy would have had fitted carpets. In the 1950s, it was normal for people to go to bed in winter in rooms so cold that ice formed on the inside of the glass. Today, we might consider that people who have no heat in their homes or no carpets are poor.

Government definitions of poverty

The lowest income that you can have is supplementary benefit. This is the money paid to people who are not in work or who qualify for benefits for some other reason. Child benefit is paid to all families with children under 16.

Supplementary benefit is paid to people who have no other income and is a very low level of payment. The government believes that this sum of money paid to people is enough to maintain life at a basic level; others would say that this is a very low payment.

Questions

  1. Explain the meanings of the following words:
  • Poverty
  • Wealth
  • Primary or absolute poverty
  • Secondary or relative poverty
  1. What is the difference between primary poverty and secondary poverty?
  1. Is anyone in Britain suffering from relative poverty? Write a sentence to explain your views.
  1. Who is most likely to experience secondary poverty?
  1. Is everyone who is a single parent poor? Think about your answer to this.
  1. What is supplementary benefit?

Development work

  1. What problems would people who have a low income have in getting a job? Discuss this with your study partners. Write your ideas down.
  1. What problems do poorer people have in their daily lives? List some of the difficulties face. Discuss this with your study partners. Write your ideas down.
  1. Ring social security, go to the post Office for leaflets or speak to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau. Find out what you can about the following levels of benefit paid to people: single parent allowances, unemployment benefit, child allowance, old age pensions, any other benefits that people are expected to live on
  1. Is poverty a problem for society? What are your views? Interview older people you know and see what they think.
  1. Write a letter to your local MP arguing either for better benefits for older people or for single parents.