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Tag: poverty
UK: The Felix Project – More Than Half of Working Families Using Food Banks! (12.12.2025)
It has resulted in The Felix Project seeing even more demand from food banks for help, Rachel Ledwith is Head of Community at The Felix Project, she said: “These results clearly show that things are not getting better for families across London. It is appalling that more and more parents can only put food on their table because of a food bank and so many are being forced to skip meals, send their children to school hungry and cut back on other things to cover their essential food bills. The Felix Project rescues as much food as it can, this year we are on course to give out the equivalent of 35 million meals, but this is not enough to satisfy demand. That is why we are launching our The Empty Plate Emergency Appeal and asking people to show their support.”
UK: New Labour Attack on Disabled Continues! (5.12.2025)
Meanwhile, DWP’s controversial new anti-fraud bill – now to be known as the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error, and Recovery) Act – has become law after receiving royal assent on Tuesday.
Last month, cross-party MPs warned that ministers’ refusal to introduce a key protection into the bill could see a repeat of the countless deaths caused by the austerity measures of past governments.
And they warned that future “authoritarian” governments could misuse the powers the Labour government has claimed through the bill, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales.
One of those powers will allow DWP to force banks to examine the accounts of claimants of means-tested benefits and then provide details of any accounts where there have been potential breaches of benefit eligibility rules.
Disability Rights UK said it was “deeply concerned” at the “bank spying bill” becoming law.
US: More Federal Employees Turn to Food Stamps as Government Shutdown Enters 6th Week! (8.11.2025)
Analysis by the U.S. think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicates that about 1.2 million households, or nearly 5 million people — roughly 1 in nine SNAP recipients — will receive zero benefits because their normal benefit amounts fall below the planned benefit reduction.
Apryl told Xinhua that, as a single mother, she is eligible for the SNAP, but she is concerned that her payments may not arrive on time as usual. “That would be more money that I have to put out into the grocery store, which is very expensive; that takes money from bills that I already have or something else I have to do for my kid,” she said.
“I think this current episode of punishing or abusing the poor … is yet another example of what has been a long-term truth about this country: how the poor have frequently been injured or deprived because of the contempt of those who are either wealthier and/or in power,” said Greg Cusack, a former member of the Iowa House of Representatives.
US: Ticking Time Bomb as Debt Reaches New High! (8.11.2025)
“The reality is that we’re becoming distressingly numb to our own dysfunction. We fail to pass budgets, we blow past deadlines, we ignore fiscal safeguards, and we haggle over fractions of a budget while leaving the largest drivers untouched. Social Security and Medicare, for example, are just seven years from having their trust funds depleted – and you don’t hear anything from our political leaders on how to avoid such a disaster,” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget President Maya MacGuineas said in a statement.
The critique lays bare America’s fiscal predicament, that is, political numbness toward systemic failures has become normalized.
While both parties remain deadlocked in partisan disputes over budgetary deals, they persistently avoid addressing the root cause of debt expansion.
The U.S. is stuck in a perpetual cycle of issuing new debt to service existing obligations—a spiral with no exit in sight. This relentless accumulation suggests the national debt bomb is destined to keep growing.
South Africa: G20 Report Warning of Global Inequality Crisis Unveiled! (6.11.2025)
Drawing on data from the World Inequality Lab, the analysis showed that the world’s richest one percent have increased their average wealth by 1.3 million U.S. dollars since 2000, while the poorest 50 percent gained only 585 U.S. dollars, adjusted for inflation. Though income gaps between individuals have narrowed largely due to growth in China, the wealth divide between the Global North and South remains substantial.
“The world understands that we have a climate emergency; it is time we recognized that we face an inequality emergency too,” said Stiglitz, who chaired the six-member committee behind the report.
Much of the wealth at the top stems from “monopoly power and exploitation,” he said, adding that inequality is “not the laws of nature, but the laws of man.”
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 