The Challenge of Poverty | Oxford Quaker Forty-Three Newsletter

Sarah Lasenby

Dear Friends,

I have been thinking about the things, people living on benefits are unable to do that we take for granted. We know that at present all poor people are finding it difficult to pay for heating and eating. The real value of benefits has dropped significantly in the last 20 years.

In the 1990s I worked with Children and Families in Oxford. At that point the County Council understood how important it was to have at least one week of holiday giving families a break from a, maybe, overcrowded home. The council bought a caravan and placed it in Hampshire near a cheap holiday camp. The families who used it often had to double up with another family, but they really appreciated the chance to get away. They loved it. The caravan rotted and the council has never had the money to replace it. These people never imagined they could go away twice in a year, let alone more often.

Then I thought of some of the things these people could not do because they could not use a car. Learning to drive is very expensive even if someone will lend you a car. Very few people on benefits can possibly own and run a vehicle. So, shopping in bulk is not available.

There are other constraints without a car. I acknowledge that people did not always have the luxury of a car but in those days public transport was more frequent, reliable, and cheap.

Now everything seems to be more difficult. Bus fares are much more expensive in Oxford than in London (more than double), and in other large towns. Our buses are of course run by private companies, and they must pay their shareholders!

Those of you that use the Oxford bus services will know that our buses do not always run on time and are very expensive.

Food Banks carry some stigma. Though these are no longer just for the identified poor, now being regularly used by working people, like nurses.

In East Oxford people come to the Tesco Express by bus and go home by taxi adding to their food costs. I have just found out that Tesco is charging between 10% and 16% more in this small Tesco near us than they charge at the large out of town Tesco.

I am sure you can think of other things that we enjoy but those on benefits will not have the chance to. All the services people used to enjoy free in their home areas have disappeared with ‘austerity’. This a huge gap in the quality of life for those living on benefits.

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Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 530 • June 2023
Oxford Friends Meeting
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