© Andrew Winning/Reuters
In a climate of unyielding austerity, more than a million people across the UK are so impoverished they don't have enough food, clothes, heating, shelter and toiletries, Britain's first study into destitution has revealed.
The
report, which was commissioned by UK charity the Joseph Rowntree Trust (JRT), used a new method to measure the scale of extreme poverty in Britain.
At present, there are no official government estimates of the level of destitution across the UK. But amid growing concern that extreme poverty is on the rise, the JRF commissioned a special report to investigate the matter. The study was conducted by academics at Herriot-Watt University, a range of other experts and a number of key UK service providers.
It took two years to complete, and was published on Wednesday. It found that a startling
1.25 million people were destitute during 2015, 312,000 of whom were children. Some 80 percent of these were born in Britain. While young, single citizens - especially men - were found to be more likely to suffer from extreme poverty, considerable numbers of families were also found to have suffered destitution.
Most severe form of poverty
Destitution is defined as the "most severe form of poverty in the UK," which leaves people in such financial jeopardy they are unable to afford vital essentials such as food, toiletries and heating. In order to discern whether an impoverished person can be defined as destitute, the report's authors said they must lack two or more essentials deemed vital for basic living over a four-week period.
People who fell into this category included: those who had been forced to sleep rough; had no meal or just one per day over a period of 48 hours or longer; were unable to heat or light their home adequately for five or more days, and lacked weather-proof clothes or had to go without basic toiletries.
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