Requiring any person to work for a weekly wage that’s less than what they can afford to live on without help is legitimised Slavery – No matter what Politicians say | Autumn Statement

I realised a long time ago that the Politicians running the UK today work on the basis that unemployment and poverty are synonymous, or exactly the same thing.

Some politicians have even built a public platform by trading on it and the arguably heartless policies that people have trusted to look after the  UKs poor and vulnerable tell us as much as we need to know about where the so-called Conservative’s priorities lie.

It wouldn’t be anywhere near as much of a problem if the ‘poverty isn’t real’ approach was only a message.

However, the idea that poverty isn’t a problem has gone way beyond being just a message. It is the basis of how today’s public policies are formed.

Today will see the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement – where the ‘Official’ announcement will be made to Parliament, that amongst a new range of sanctions against those on benefits (the punishment for the poor and vulnerable who don’t behave), the National Living Wage will rise in April 2024 to £11.44 (the gift to all the poor and vulnerable who behave and do as they are told).

For those in low paid jobs earning the current National Living Wage of £10.42 per hour (or less if they are too young), an uplift of over £1 an hour does sound great.

But £11.44 is still nowhere near enough to live on. And that was a month ago.

In October, I worked through the figures in an attempt to work out how the UK’s elected parliamentarians could be so confident that they are correct in their analysis of what it costs to live. Whilst those actually living the experience of being poor know that they are not.

At the moment I discovered that using the average costs for all of the important things that a single person, working a 40-hour week would need to earn per hour came to £9.41 per hour, I admit that I did genuinely wonder if everyone other than the Politicians had got this all wrong.

However, as I then went on to consider, averages only tell a helpful story to anyone who will benefit from presenting a story in that particular way.

Facts are, that when we consider the real world cost of everything a single person needs – including the ‘poverty premium’, which is the overcharge too many people are forced to pay, because being poor is perceived as being ‘a risk’, the real minimum hourly wage required – for ANYONE working a 40 hour week – just so that they can live WITHOUT SUPPORT – is a MINIMUM £14 per hour!!!**

Again, that was IN OCTOBER 2023 – without adding in the rapid rises in the cost of living. An inflation rate that might have halved, but is still running rampant at 4.7% or more.

It should be a basic human right that people be able to provide fully for themselves on a weekly wage. That’s even before thinking about the realities that married couples and people with family commitments have to contemplate.

Requiring anyone to work for a whole working week and then paying them any less than what it will cost them to cover the cost of meeting all of their basic needs, without subsidy from government, having to take out loans, or having to seek help through charities (such as food banks) is nothing less than sanctioned or legitimised slavery.

Just think about that for a moment. You cannot fend for yourself on what you earn but are being forced to work. Doesn’t that mean you being treated as a slave?

Yes, being honest with ourselves and seeing poverty and how Politicians ‘interpret’ it doesn’t make comfortable reading. Especially for all the small business owners who will already be wondering what the hell they are going to do to cover the upsurge in costs when wages rise – not only by £1.02 per hour in April 2024 – but with all the additional costs that the employers will then be forced to pay afterwards too.

However, all those business owners who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) pay a minimum £14 per hour (Plus the on-costs) in October 2023, should also be asking themselves the very troubling question ‘WHY?’

It won’t take long to realise that none of this adds up for anyone. Other than those who have already got more than they should ever need.

The world does not exist to do business or make money for those who have already got too much of it.

An economy should function purely to support and sustain happy and healthy lives that are humane for every one of us, above all else.

**It may be worth considering that with the average UK annual wage for all workers is currently at 27,756.00, even this realistically low figure sits way below the annual wage of what I am suggesting EVERYONE needs as a minimum of £14ph – which is £29,120.00. It is perhaps telling that only this week, the announcement was made that Foreign workers coming to the UK will need to earn at least £30K per year. Does someone working for the Government know something?