benefits

According to the Work and Pension Secretary a “fixation” with giving the poor money to lift them out of poverty is doing nothing to make them take responsibility for their lives. Mr Duncan Smith is calling for the definition of poverty, which is based on a family’s income, to be torn up and replaced with one that takes into account their wider circumstances.

Rose Regeneration recently completed a report on farm poverty for Oxfam which took a more holistic approach to the definition – moving beyond the ‘household’ and income levels to understand how it is a multifaceted and deeply personal experience. I do not think   in terms of my experience of rural poverty that some, for example Upland Communities, have many people sustained as work shy couch potatoes funded by the state. Indeed my research suggests people are having to turn to the informal economy not to support their indolence but in the absence of meaningful employment opportunities.