• In Britain, Even Children Are Feeling the Effects of Austerity
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/world/europe/uk-austerity-child-poverty.html?partner=msft_msn

    The Conservative Party leaders who pushed through the austerity program dispute that it is the cause of rising child poverty, or that child poverty is increasing. They argue that a new system that bundles most payments into one, known as universal credit, is an improvement.

    The new system is “infinitely better than what it replaced,” said Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative former cabinet minister who oversaw the changes. “The process of stepping into work is easier.”

    That rationale is being questioned. Though unemployment has been more than halved under the Conservatives, the overall child poverty rate has risen. And roughly two-thirds of poor children have at least one parent who works, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said.

    “We tell ourselves completely the wrong story about poverty in the U.K.,” Ms. Garnham said. “The government likes to focus attention on workless families, but there’s hardly any left. That’s a problem of the past.”

    #austérité #pauvreté #travailleurs #pauvres #Grande_Bretagne