YP Comment: Poverty remains a big concern

But the scale of the problem facing those that are living on the breadline should not be under-estimated. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s annual state of the nation report, published last year, more than a million people in Yorkshire are living in poverty while the region now has the dubious distinction of having the highest share of in-work poverty in the North of England.

We are not talking about feckless layabouts content to sponge off the state, these are ordinary working people who are struggling to make ends meet and who, in many cases, aren’t.

Take Claire Robinson from Leeds. She works as a hospital domestic and in the last few years has seen the cost of living rise faster than her wages. It should never be the case that those on the dole are better off than those, like Claire, who get up and go to work each morning, but many people feel they are penalised for having a job.

Poverty in 21st century Britain might not equate to the dreadful conditions endured by past generations and we certainly aren’t talking about the Victorian workhouses that Charles Dickens wrote about so powerfully, but in this day and age nor should we be.

If this Government really wants to make work pay then it needs to ensure that everyone in this country has a genuine living wage, irrespective of how old they are or the type of job they have. Otherwise what kind of message are we sending to those sitting idly at home in front of the TV?