Poverty, deprivation and the consequent social exclusion is not only destructive for those who experience it, it is corrosive of the collective and individual potential we all share. Removing poverty and multiple deprivation from our society is a fundamental aim as ecosocialists. It can be done, and immediate steps can be taken. Both demands and policies proposed in other discussion papers make a contribution to ending poverty and deprivation, this one focuses on wealth redistribution, equality of household income  and sustaining them over time.

The list of sources for this paper are linked above and for a more detailed understanding I would refer you to those, particularly the JRF and CPAG papers as well as the research overviews from the Senedd and House of Commons Library. 

Poverty in Cymru is deep and getting worse. What is happening to us, and why, is also reflected in what is happening to working class households across the UK. A demonstration of what we can do in Cymru would be an inspiration to action on a much wider basis. 

Poverty derives from low incomes and economic insecurity. In Cymru a quarter of the population, around 700,000 people, are in poverty. This is from the JRF and is based upon what is called relative poverty defined as below 60% of the median household income. However the JRF also proposes an absolute measure of poverty based upon the needs of people and households which they call the ‘minimum income standard’ (MIS). The latest MIS estimates that to meet this standard a single person would need to earn £28,000 per year and a couple £69,400 per year. It is difficult to find estimates of how many people would be in poverty applying these figures but it would be approaching half the population. It is clear that trying to keep your head above water is a real struggle for most households.

There are many ways of describing and giving examples of what this means, but for me just how close people are to the breadline is indicated by the level of savings and debt in UK households. Around a quarter of UK adults (11.5 million people) have less than £100 savings, with 1 in 6 having none at all. 30% of households own just 1% of total household wealth, the richest 1% hold more wealth than the bottom 80% combined. In October 2024, around 2.6 million of the poorest fifth of households (44%) were in arrears with their household bills or behind on scheduled lending repayments, 4.1 million households (69%) were going without essentials and 3.2 million households (54%) cut back on food or went hungry.  In Cymru 3 in 10 children live in poverty; 4 in 10 households in poverty contain a full time worker.

It doesn’t take much to tip people over and all the reports are clear that on the factors that do this: loss of work, precarious work, loss of real pay, loss of benefits, increased caring demands, illness and impairment, discrimination, increased living costs, particularly those that cannot be avoided, such as rent, food, power, transport. For most working class households it is not possible to ‘get on their bikes’ and find work – indeed why should we – there is little that can be done individually to avoid these challenges, hence poverty affects those most vulnerable to these changes. 

Not only are more workers facing the danger of being tipped over the bread line, the situation is getting worse, with very little prospect of change. Household real incomes have effectively stagnated since the financial crisis; the proportion of people living in absolute poverty has risen from 28% to 52%; young people find it hard to move from renting to owning a property; are faced with jobs that are precarious, many who have been to University have over £50,000 of debt. Young families struggle with mortgages, the cost of child care, rising prices and in work, the constant need to fight to sustain the real value of wages. 

It does not have to be like this and we can do something about it: politically.

Fighting poverty in Cymru – the record so far

The record so far is paved with good intentions that have not been fulfilled. An early commitment by the Labour Welsh Government to remove child poverty was quietly dropped in 2016. The Wellbeing legislation is fine in principle, but difficult to see the results in practice. The recent Welsh Government child poverty strategy that is currently out for consultation at the moment follows this trend with pulling together what could be done in Cymru but as the Bevan Foundation has pointed out, there is an absence of targets and we would add timings. As we experienced as People’s Assembly Wales, free school meals for primary schools is cited by the Welsh Government as a contribution to overcoming child poverty, but it only happened after a widely supported and effective campaign which was opposed by the then Welsh Labour Government. 

Of course the problem of effectively fighting poverty does not lie totally with the Welsh Government. Benefits and welfare are not devolved and are run from Westminster and we have experience in Cymru, like the rest of the UK, 15 years now of austerity cuts, with it seems, more in prospect from the Starmer government. This is not to let the Labour Party, or indeed Plaid, off the austerity hook, as they either implemented or allowed austerity to be implemented, when they could have said no and led a collective mobilisation across Cymru against austerity. That was their wrong political choice.

This can and has to stop if we are to challenge poverty in Cymru. Being able to do so, as a start, requires the devolution of control over the benefits system. But even more so, it does require a challenge to austerity and the ability at the very least to use the tax system to raise the finance needed for a serious policy of redistribution of wealth and to oppose spending it on arms.

Possible policy and demands.

1. All elected representatives commit to voting against austerity cuts budgets and be prepared to develop and support collective mobilisation in Cymru to support their stand. 
2. As in the other sections, support a needs based comprehensive spending review of all Cymru public services as an alternative to cuts. 
3. Devolve all benefits provision to the Senedd and as part of this move, support a new needs based formula for the allocation of public spending to the UK nations. 
4. All Senedd anti poverty policies to be expressed as targets to be achieved by a date such as  in the WG child poverty strategy
5. Support the case for a radical progressive national and local tax system including a wealth tax on individual asset ownership above £Xm,  for investment in people and income redistribution.
6. Support all the policies proposed in the other papers that reduce poverty, such as trade union rights, collective bargaining, rent freeze and control and universal free at the point of need publicly owned services in education, school meals, transport and health.
7. Establish a legal right to work for all who are able, with the state being the employer of last resort.
8. Establish the legal right to food and housing
9. No person and no household to fall below the minimum income standard
10. At the very minimum no one to be paid less than the real living wage
11. All wages to be legally protected against inflation 
12. Restore child benefit for all, end the bedroom tax and all other benefit cuts made since 2009
13. All benefits to be covered by triple lock
14. Welsh Government to support ‘citizen’ advocates ensuring everyone has a free representative to help them access their rights.
15. Support all actions to defend jobs pay and conditions and all campaigns to defend the benefits.