According to a recent report from the Centre for Social Justice, the most disadvantaged people in the UK are no better off than they were fifteen years ago.
Work is so badly paid and insecure that, for many, benefits offer a less miserly income, and this is not because welfare is extremely generous. Rather, ‘real average weekly pay growth in the UK has remained stagnant since the 2008 financial crisis’. Two-fifths of the most deprived have a mental health condition, and family breakdown and poor housing also feature prominently.
The Covid pandemic and lockdown no doubt contributed to this, but the real underlying cause is capitalism, and the inequality and poverty that it implies.