Stephen Armstrong

75 years after the Beveridge Report: The shocking extent of hardship in the UK Right now in the UK, 13 million people live in poverty; one in five children subsist below the poverty line. Figures such as these suggest devastating repercussions for health, education and life expectancy. The new poor, however, is an even larger group than these official statistics suggest, and its conditions are something new to our era. More often than not, these people are the working poor, living precariously and betrayed by austerity. In The New Poverty, Stephen Armstrong tells the stories of the most vulnerable in British society. He explores an unreported country, abandoned by politicians and stranded as the welfare state has shrunk. Furthermore, as benefit cuts continue into 2018 and beyond, Armstrong asks what will be the long-term impact of Brexit and--on the anniversary of the Beveridge Report--what we can do to keep the giants of indigence at bay.… (mehr)

I've read George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier a couple of times and always found it interesting. In this book Stephen Armstrong sets out to look at how the poorest in our society, whether unemployed or those on low wages, maybe the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those people visited by George Orwell in the 1930's, are coping in the 21st Century. His research was carried out in the summer of 2011 as riots flared up all over England and so the book also addresses the question of why the riots occurred. A topical read in the U.K. today when there are major concerns about the reduction in social mobility.

Dealing with the problems that people on benefits or low incomes have in living their lives, the book covers the usual areas of the difficulty of getting a healthy diet, housing, lack of support in obtaining a job, while at the same time being faced with a culture which praises conspicuous consumption above all else. The book's main strength is in its stories of individuals who are caught up in a system that they are unable to deal with.

Ultimately, while a reasonable read for people interested in social issues, I think the book failed in its objectives. Very little of what was said was new or came as a huge surprise, and the book jumped around from topic to topic in a fairly confused way. Lynsey Hanley's Estates: An Intimate History deals with similar issues and is much more successful at offering real insights into the lives and outlook of people in this situation.… (mehr)