Stop paying the poor

John Bird
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue [1]

THE POOR MAY HAVE ALWAYS been with us. But they are no longer an adjunct to an otherwise healthy society. They take a vast slice of our taxes and our time. And they fill our social security offices, our courts, our prisons and our hospitals in disproportionate numbers.

The homeless are the tip of the poverty iceberg. They are what we see. But they come from the same failing social backgrounds, the same poor housing, the same violent areas as poor people.

“The state is paying people to fail”

Our responses to the homeless are mostly emergency ones: hostels, hospitals, prisons and social security payments. The state is paying people to fail. So the problem isn’t going away. What we need is prevention.

We have to look at the big oxygenators of social failure: bad housing, bad parenting, bad education and social security. We should be supporting organisations that have a long-term approach to each - and which subscribe to the following truths.

We need to give the right kind of support to the right people. The homeless, those living on the streets or in hostels, those living in abject poverty have different problems and need different sorts of help.
Rough sleepers need decent, safe accommodation without the violence and theft many fear in today’s hostels. They need stability and training on which to build a slow return to working life.
The mentally ill who cannot take care of themselves need stable long-term care and the right kind of safe shelter.
The children sentenced to grow up in care - instead of spending upwards of £1 million paying them to fail, we must recreate stable family life with two committed parents from the earliest age, and provide good education.

> More expert opinions [1]
> Watchdog articles [1]