Selvina Colleemalay How Far Does Povert Essay Example

attempt to clarify the subsistence.

The problem of poverty could therefore be removed if t was found what it took to survive. The definition of relative poverty is associated with subjective or social norms, recognizing that a judgment is directly involved in determining the level of poverty. Judgment is necessary because of the definition of relative poverty, allowing the comparison of living standards of poor members of different social groups. While social benefits are able to provide sufficient support to prevent poverty, it is not removed from the society and remains a problem.

Relative poverty is a tool that prevents people who are labeled as the poor from participating in activities hat are common in the area where they live. Things necessary for life vary in practice, depending on the circumstances, where people live, what material they have available to build a house or what ingredients they use for food preparation and many others.

The human situation is in practice determined by the agility of individuals to secure adequate living conditions, it is related to the use of accessible resources that are available. Lock, 2006) Overall poverty affects both the lack Of access to education leading to starvation and the lack of access to medical care, which contributes to poor lath status of persons who are in overall poverty. As regards people living in poverty, there have been a great number of deaths caused by various diseases because of the difficult access to medical care. There are cases of social discrimination that is associated with the inability to participate in social and cultural life. People living in poverty are often excluded by the society.

Especially vulnerable

to poverty are children, elderly people, people with physical or mental disabilities, immigrants and people in areas affected by natural disasters. As mentioned above, poverty represents a significant airier to access to health care and set-vices in general. (UN, 1 995) There is also primary and secondary poverty. Primary poverty refers to those who are unable to provide the values necessary for subsistence. Secondary poverty includes those who seem to be able to procure the means of living but still have not been able to get above the level of subsistence. Lock, 2006)

Child poverty in facts and figures points that in the United Kingdom there are more than three and a half million children living in poverty, which is every fourth child.

Working parents do not guarantee a way out of poverty, because at east two-thirds of children living in poverty come from families where at least one member has a job. Poverty arises from a lot of different reasons, the general opinion is that people become poor because of drugs, alcohol, or they just do not want to work, but this is not always true.

Children growing up in poverty are starving, they suffer from cold because their parents cannot afford to heat their home. The children cannot participate in activities with their friends. Poverty has a lasting impact because children who are eligible for free meals at school are often given worse evaluation in graduation, which dads to possible loss of opportunity to get higher education and consequently to lower incomes in employment in the future.

Lower incomes mean that they cannot afford adequate housing and this in turn leads to poverty. Children from

poor homes have lower life expectancy and are more likely to die in infancy Of childhood; they have greater likelihood Of poor health, a lower chance of high educational attainment, a greater risk of unemployment, a higher probability of involvement in crime and of enduring homelessness. Girls from poor homes are at greater risk of teenage pregnancy. " (Howard et. Al. 2001 , p.126)

The Labor government set a goal to attempt to remove the child poverty within twenty years. A disturbing fact is that child poverty increased enormously in the last thirty years. Children at risk of poverty mostly come from single-parent households, from unemployed parents and from ethnic minority families. More than fifty percent of partners with children and single- parent households are below the minimum income and therefore live in poverty. In contrast, only seven percent of families without children live in poverty.

For children living in poverty, the government provides free school eels. These can be achieved only by children whose parents receive income support and/or seek employment. There are cases when other children meet a poor child and start bullying him/her and this leads to the exclusion from the society. Children from poor families are vulnerable to poor health and suffer from a lot of long-term illnesses. It is because of poor diet, since their parents cannot afford to buy good food.

It happens that children do not even have one hot meal a day. A survey of British children from five to fifteen years of age showed that ten percent of children from single-parent and poor implies often have psychological problems. Especially vulnerable are children from families where weekly income is below

two hundred pounds. Children from these families are often neglected and are at risk of abuse. Authorities register that the risk in poor neighborhoods occurs five times more often than in other parts of the city. Poverty can affect the development of the children.

It has been reported that children with lower birth weight and children from underprivileged classes do not reach the same height as children from higher social classes. Such poverty has an influence on the mental development of children. It affects educational opportunities. Children from poorer environment are less likely to complete higher education than children of parents working in managerial positions.

Absenteeism is also higher among children from poor families than among the others. Research results show that children from poor backgrounds achieve lower levels of education and there is a higher number of pregnant girls who become pregnant before attaining their majority. (Howard et. 2001 )

The impact of poverty on children s life chances is bad, because poverty destroys children, their families, everything. It is recorded that child poverty sots the United Kingdom twenty-nine billion pounds a year. Poorer children lag behind in all aspects of education.

At the age of three, children from poor families are behind by nine months compared to children from higher classes.

Children living in poverty are more susceptible to diseases and often suffer premature deaths. The birth weight of children born in poor areas of the United Kingdom is about two hundred grams lower than the birth weight of children born in the richest areas. Furthermore, children from poor families are more likely to die at birth or in early childhood than children from ICC social

classes. These children may suffer more from chronic diseases in childhood or they may be born with physical or mental disabilities.

A lifestyle that is associated with the environment in which we live has an impact on life expectancy, and therefore the life expectancy in poor areas is shorter. Children living in poverty mostly live in the wrong environment, it has an impact on their mental and physical health and of course, the results achieved in education. There are cases when families have to choose between heating and food for the family. It is therefore not surprising that hillier from poor families have to give up things that are perfectly normal for us, such as school trips or birthday parties of their friends.

A poor family also cannot afford to invite their friends or relatives over and they are not able to participate in family celebrations and other events because they cannot bring any gifts. Although in poorer areas there is not the lack of playgrounds, their equipment is poorer and vandals often destroy them, so they lack their purpose and it is not safe to use them.