{"id":260448,"date":"2016-08-07T13:24:36","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T13:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/poverty-costs-british-taxpayers-78bn-a-year-report\/"},"modified":"2016-08-07T13:24:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T13:24:36","slug":"poverty-costs-british-taxpayers-78bn-a-year-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/poverty-costs-british-taxpayers-78bn-a-year-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Poverty costs British taxpayers \u00a378bn a year \u2013 report"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Every British taxpayer spends \u00a31,200 annually on reversing the effects of poverty, new research has shown.<\/p>\n

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The report<\/a>, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), found that even when benefits spending is excluded the public spends a total of \u00a378 billion (US$102 billion) \u2013 equal to just over 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) \u2013 on dealing with the impact of poverty.<\/p>\n

One fifth of all the money spent on public services in Britain is being used to combat poverty, the research found.<\/p>\n

The report, which drew on research by Heriot-Watt and Loughborough Universities, estimates \u00a369.2 billion worth of spending goes towards public services such as healthcare, education and policing.<\/p>\n

The report found that healthcare is the highest of the poverty-related costs, with \u00a329 billion going to treat health conditions associated with poverty. Another \u00a310 billion is spent on measures such as free school meals, and a further \u00a39 billion spent to counteract higher crime rates in deprived areas.<\/p>\n

Up to \u00a39 billion accounts for lost tax revenue.<\/p>\n

The authors noted the figures are a \u201cbroad brush estimate\u201d<\/em> and that it is difficult to gauge the full cost of poverty.<\/p>\n

Co-author of the report Professor Donald Hirsch of Loughborough said: \u201cIt is hard even to estimate the full cost of poverty, not least its full scarring effect on those who experience it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat our figures show is that there are very large, tangible effects on the public purse.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience of poverty, for example, makes it more likely that you\u2019ll suffer ill health or that you\u2019ll grow up with poor employment prospects and rely more on the state for your income,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

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Research says #poverty<\/a> costs UK \u00a378bn each year. But how much does tax evasion and dodgy politicians cost us? A lot more…<\/p>\n

\u2014 Parveen Agnihotri (@Parveen_Comms) August 1, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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Not all bad news that poverty \u201ccosts the UK \u00a378bn\u201d. As we’re about to find double that for Trident, we can just scrap Trident and solve it.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Susan (@marthasydenham) August 1, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every British taxpayer spends \u00a31,200 annually on reversing the effects of poverty, new research has shown. The report, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), found that even when benefits spending is excluded the public spends a total of \u00a378 billion (US$102 billion) \u2013 equal to just over 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-260448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}