Austerity devastating UK deprived councils
A leading UK think tank says the country’s most deprived regions have been worst affected by drastic cuts to council budgets and will likely suffer disproportionately again when the next phase of budget savings are announced.
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has published a report examining how councils’ spending has fluctuated across England since the coalition came to power. It also reveals how these cuts have impacted upon local authority services such as social care, transport, housing and environmental services.
Experts say the problem lies in this fact that the government persists in pressing ahead its austerity measures without caring about people’s real conditions.
“The problem is that the government is going ahead with austerity regardless of looking into the consequences. And of course the conservatives tend not to worry too much about the bottom 20 percent in society. And so they’re enforcing austerity but not really looking into who is affected too much, but the evidence clearly shows that the bottom 20 percent are some of the most-affected by the cuts,’ Economic analyst Keith Pilbeam told Press TV.
He referred to the social effects of austerity policies saying:” people are losing benefits; they are losing housing allowance, so kids are being moved around, and they may have to move house because there are limits on the available funds for housing, kids are being forced to move schools perhaps, and some people are obviously being forced to work that may actually be ill.”
Pilbeam went on saying that there are very sleazy tests to check if people qualify for the benefits they are claiming.
“So the trouble is that the austerity is probably needed but there needs to be some sort of focus on helping the bottom 20 percent. And that doesn’t seem to be taking place,” he noted.
MTM/MH
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