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THERESA MAY saw her claims for a Tory “fairer Britain” take a second humiliating blow in two days yesterday as it emerged the nation is seeing its first sustained increases in child and pensioner poverty in 20 years.
There are now a total of 14 million people living in poverty, including 4m children and 1.9m pensioners, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report found.
In the last four years alone, up to 400,000 more children and 300,000 more pensioners have dropped into poverty — and little progress is being made in reducing its prevalence among working-age adults.
Plans to delay access to the universal credit health element until age 22 have triggered fierce opposition from disabled people’s groups, who warn it would deepen poverty and entrench discrimination against young disabled people under the guise of ‘encouraging work.’ DYLAN MURPHY reports
