Society’s attitudes to Poverty and Welfare

Last week’s child poverty report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation stating that 30% of Children in Wales live in poverty was highlighted by Valleys Mam and MH at the Syniadau blog and made depressing reading it should be a wake up call to politicians and policy makers we’ll see.

But the response to it was predictable as the figures themselves. It’s telling that despite the Labour Government taking many families and children out of poverty in the 12 years it’s been in power that attitudes to the poorest in our society and some underlying causes of inequality still remain the same and have been left unchallenged, if anything the debate is moving further towards dispassion with both main parties Conservative and Labour looking to use more stick than carrot to reduce the UK’s overall spend on welfare provision.

However another report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on people’s attitudes to economic inequality and welfare policy carried out across the UK and also published last week may challenge some of that thinking and will certainly offer food for thought to our policy makers, its key findings are below and show that although people don’t like ‘scroungers’ they are happy for people being rewarded fairly and to targeted intervention to help those least well off.

Key points

Nearly all the participants in the discussion groups placed themselves in the 'middle' of the income spectrum and interpreted the 'income gap' as the gap between the 'middle' and the 'super-rich'.

Most participants believed that 'deserved' inequalities are fair. They were not opposed to high incomes they perceived to be deserved through high-level ability, performance or social contribution.

Participants often made assumptions about the virtues of those with high incomes in order to justify income inequalities. However, after the start of the financial crisis of autumn 2008, they increasingly questioned whether high salaries were deserved.

Attitudes towards those on low incomes were often more negative than attitudes towards the ‘rich’. Two important factors driving these attitudes were widespread beliefs that there are adequate opportunities to earn a reasonable income and beliefs that benefit recipients will not contribute back to society.

Most participants strongly supported progressive tax and benefit systems. When considering evidence about unequal life chances, they were supportive of targeted interventions to improve life chances for the disadvantaged.

Many participants did not find abstract arguments for greater equality persuasive. They preferred arguments for greater equality framed in terms of fairer rewards for effort and contribution.

Many participants found claims about the possible negative social consequences of income inequality convincing. They showed strong support for a social vision based upon improving quality of life for everyone and were prepared to support certain egalitarian policies in this context.