Austerity ‘punishing poor for bankers’ sins’

OLDHAM MP Michael Meacher has demanded that the government stops denying its austerity programme is targeting the poor.

A study has shown the poorest Britons suffer poverty on a par with those in the former eastern bloc.

The MP for Oldham West and Royton said the report from think-tank the High Pay Centre should shame the government into abandoning its austerity programme and start creating real jobs.

He added: “The truth is life is much worse here than it is for the poorest fifth in virtually every other north-western European country.

“These facts put into perspective not only the experience in Britain of Chancellor George Osborne’s austerity, but the unique imposition of the bedroom tax, the near-million persons who have been deprived of all benefits in the last year as a result of Department of Work and Pensions sanctioning, and the further million persons who have been shamefully taken off incapacity benefit and put on jobseekers allowance at £71 a week on the utterly spurious pretence that they are able to work.”

The poorest households in the UK are closer to the poorest in Slovenia and the Czech Republic than to the poor in western Europe.

The OECD says the average income of the bottom fifth of UK households is £5,639 a year. In Germany the figure is £7,918, France £7,486, Belgium £7,308, Denmark £7,209, and the Netherlands £6,671.