SOCIAL WORK

Social Work and Poverty



Social Work and Poverty

The intention of this essay is to discuss the physical and psychological consequences of living in poverty. It will explore the history of the Welfare State and access its significance in the fight against poverty, outlining the effect of poverty on various groups of people within society, and how it influences health.

Poverty Defined

"Poverty is defined relative to the standards of living in a society at a specific time. People live in poverty when they are denied an income sufficient for their material needs and when these circumstances exclude them from taking part in activities which are an accepted part of daily life in that society."

There are three main definitions of poverty, firstly there is Absolute Poverty, in the 1890s, the social reformer Joseph Rowntree set out to prove to a sceptical public that there was a great deal of poverty in the UK. Rowntree argued that there are three essential elements of expenditure that every person makes food, clothing, and housing. The advantages of the absolute definition of poverty are that it is very clear and ambiguous. The disadvantages are, however, is that it is extremely difficult to define necessities or "minimum standards of living", even those who subscribe to an absolute definition tend to relate "necessities" to their own society.

Relative poverty definitions stress that poverty can only be measured by comparing one person's standard of living against another's. There is no such thing as an absolute, fixed level of poverty. Advantages of the relative approach are that it relates poverty to the expectations of society and it gives a realistic picture of deprivation within society. The disadvantages of course are that the relative approach can be taken to the extreme, as long as there is inequality there is poverty. Just because a person does not have the little "extras' or "luxuries' that some others in society enjoy, does not mean they are poor.

Finally there is the consensual definition of poverty, there are several problems surrounding the absolute and relative definitions. In defining poverty in absolute terms, there is a problem in knowing what a "necessity" really is.

Another problem with the relative approach is that the definition is based on levels of income. Yet a person's standard of living doesn't always reflect the amount of money going into a house. To overcome these problems, a consensual measure has been suggested. The measure was first devised by Townsend (1979) and refined by Mack and Lansley's studies (1985 and 1991). One thousand people were asked to rank in order of importance what they considered to be necessities. These were then all put together and a group of necessities were found which were agreed by a large majority of those questioned, from this, Mack and Lansley were able to work out a level of deprivation that the majority of the population considered to be unacceptable.

Over the past 30 years, society has become more and more unequal; the gap between the rich and poor has been increasing ...