San Francisco, CA (PRBuzz.com) December 7, 2012 -- The 'troubled family', characterized by welfare dependency, crime, violence, and general dysfunction, has become the image of modern poverty.
The Government's stock image of those who are classified as disadvantaged, neglectful, drug-addicted, and riotous persons living in the inner city.
What this paradigm of persons lacks is any true substantive evidence to support the concept. It is a image utilized to describe those under the poverty line, and the 9.8 million who are classified as such hardly can be painted with a single brush stroke.
Research published recently by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation expressed that more persons in poverty are in work, rather than out of it. Two thirds of children within poverty live in a household where someone is working.
The department of World and Pensions' figures from 2008 regarding drug use, often cited as a key contributor for family poverty, showed a mere 6.6% of benefit claimants in England were drug users at the time of the survey. Contrary to the archaic image held by the government, take-up of key income-related benefits range from 89% to 61%, with the lowest take-up coming from income-based Jobseeker's Allowance and Council Tax Benefit.
The facts simply seem to paint a different picture of the poor family.
What is more concerning, is the use of the narrative of social dysfunction, and the false dichotomy of "us vs them" in regards to the poor, that risks driving a wedge between families in poverty and the middle and upper classes. This could mean reduction or termination of programs set to help those in need, who by a wide majority put in effort to 'right the ship' out of poverty. Reduction or termination of such programs could ironically cause more to fall into abject and helpless poverty, wherein drug use and other nefarious activities can growth forth from.
The misrepresentation of the poor family is troublesome on many levels. Being capable to communicate to the public of what a poor family actually looks like is important to build communal supportive behavior toward said families. Without a conscious understanding of the real 'poor families' can continue a hostile rift.
Recently, the British Social Attitudes survey expressed an increasingly hostile attitudes toward those within low-income brackets. Only 28% of persons believe government should spend more on welfare for the poor, compared to 43% who believed so 10 years ago, with more than a third of people believing that many who receive benefits 'do not deserve them'.
The Demos research published aims to shift the public's negative predisposition to the families of poverty. Research ranged from skills and employment to health and housing, even financial resilience and social networking. The mapping showed that the preconceptions of 'poor families' seem to be far of the mark of the reality of the group.
The biggest group of low-income families with children, called 'grafters' are nearly the opposite to the 'troubled family' stereotype. Over 90% of them work in professional occupations. The vast majority are homeowners, with half holding a degree. These families also keep in strong physical health and live in good neighborhoods.
The research also pointed to positive factors of those in the poverty grouping. Those under the poverty line were found to be more interested in neighborhood support and support from family members that lived in close proximity. Even those who lived in some of the more deprived neighborhoods showed an higher average of stronger and more supportive relationships, both in the families and with their neighbors.
The point of the research was not intended to downplay that poverty can and is sometimes caused through nefarious action such as drug addiction, and so forth. Instead, it is meant to give an example of how a single concept of a complex problem like poverty is impossible to implement.
The Government recently announced a consultation on expanding measures to define reasons for child poverty, such as education and health factors, rather than simply based upon low-income. In extending the scope, the Government can attain a more full picture of poverty, and help put a less demonized face to the issue.
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