Wealth, poverty and welfare 1

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION This unit of wealth, poverty and welfare reflects the inequality that exists in our society. This is an important issue for sociologists. Poverty was once considered a social problem and sociologists carried out research to understand the issue and to attempt to provide solutions to solve the problem of poverty.

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION State welfare and benefits have considerably changed in the last one hundred years in developed countries, such as Britain, in an effort to reduce the number of people who fall into the category of being ‘poor’.

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION Poverty and wealth exist in developed countries. Some people are rich; others are poor. Civilised societies provide help for those that are sick, unemployed or retired, through taxation of citizens. This ensures that they have a minimum income to live on.

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION If families have an income, they can normally manage to live reasonably comfortably, even if they cannot afford to buy everything that they want. So how do we define poverty and who falls into the category of being ‘poor’?

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION One individual who was extremely influential in defining poverty was Seebohm Rowntree who devised research at the beginning of the twentieth century to define whether people were in poverty or not.

or below the poverty line (in poverty) SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION He defined people as belonging to a category: above the poverty line (out of poverty) or below the poverty line (in poverty)

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION He argued that people needed: Food Clothes Shelter These were the minimum for existence. The poverty line was drawn at the point where a minimum was needed to ‘maintain health’.

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION Since Rowntree’s research, there have been many attempts to redefine poverty as society changes and people’s expectations of their lives change too. So poverty has to be defined in the time that it occurs.

There are two types of poverty: absolute poverty and relative poverty. SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION There are two types of poverty: absolute poverty and relative poverty.

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION Absolute poverty means that a person does not have what they need to survive physically, for example, they do not have food, drink, clothing or shelter.

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare INTRODUCTION Relative poverty means that the individual is measured against the standard of living of the rest of the society in which he/she lives.

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare Defining poverty The difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty is the difference between: Absolute poverty: An individual’s biological needs: Food Water Clothing Shelter

SOCIOLOGY - Wealth, Poverty and Welfare Defining poverty The difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty is the difference between: Relative poverty: An individual’s needs according to a generally accepted standard of the society in which the individual is living at that specific time.