Political will to reduce poverty seems to be lacking.

Political will to reduce poverty seems to be lacking.

Political posturing and rhetoric, especially socialist and left wing, does no good

What will do good are practical steps to reduce the hardship of low income and unemployment

These proposals essentially apply to Britain but may transfer to other nations.

If any political party genuinely want to help the poor there are a few things they could do:_-

General proposals for all people on low incomes.:-

Make the sale and purchase of debt illegal unless the informed consent of the debtor is given in writing and witnessed.

No debt repayment can total more than 190% of original debt. That is the total of interest charges, administration charges, fees, legal costs etc cannot exceed 90% of the total borrowed.

Service contracts such as BB phone mobile etc cannot be bought or sold without the express written and informed consent of each individual contract holder.

Essential suppliers, That is electricity, water, heating (gas or oil)to be made legally obliged to keep to agreed prices for the total length of a contract. Even when the small print allows increases at specific times. If the contract is for 2 years, the prices are legally fixed for 2 years

If the price increases of these essential supplies, outstrips the increase in income for those on state pension or minimum wages, or on universal benefits, there must be automatic equivalent increases in pensions benefits etc. These increases to be paid within 4 weeks of the increased costs.

Where an effective monopoly exists (as most water/sewage suppliers are in each locality.) The charges they make to domestic consumers to be strictly regulated so that increases are the same % or lower, than cost of living increases. Electricity supply charges—prices—to be regulated so that a day rate- a fixed charge per day even if no electricity is supplied to be strictly related to actual costs (the audited amount spent on the distribution network, nation-wide, divided by the number of dwellings, buildings, enterprises supplied) of the preceding year. The regulated charges to domestic consumers to be based on the average cost of generation, not the most expensive generated power source.

Legal aid to be for British citizens only and to be available for all British citizens with income lower than the national average income, for all legal matters

Social housing to be for British nationals only. Visitors have to pay full private sector rates.

Specific ideas related to employment:-

The trend towards automation and in particular the use of Artificial Intelligence in computers to replace administrative routine tasks, is going to reduce the number of jobs available. Many more people will have to transition to smaller “artisan” enterprises.

The economic burden of the state has to be reduced, With less people being in paid productive employment there has to be a corresponding reduction the non-productive state employee number. Nothing is sustainable without this basic understanding

The population growth must be controlled, that is obviously essential in the medium and long term. Only with reduced numbers can meaningful positive economic assistance, be given to the unemployed.

Education must recognise the change to a more fragmented employment “market” many more smaller and specialised enterprises will need practical skills and more flexible employees than larger multi nationals. It is no good turning out thousands of degree graduates in social science, when the only work is baking artisan bread.

The laws governing hours etc. need to reflect the reality of these smaller enterprises

Taxation on enterprises, such as farming, house building, maintenance, arts and crafts, small scale food production, even micro brewers, has to be pitched to encourage them, to enable the founders to benefit economically from the jobs they create. A good start would be to remove any and all forms of taxation based on the value of fixed assets. Investment in small businesses will not occur if the assets purchased by the investment are taxed. Farming is a good example, the monetary value of land purchased hundreds of years ago and passed through family heritage to the present day is the basis, the vital necessity, of the employment the farm generates. Taxation should encourage this and not destroy this. The same must apply to bakers, clothes making etc. the fixed assets (land, buildings, machinery infrastructure) should not result in any form of extra tax. Such taxation destroys employment possibilities.

Transition from unemployment benefit support to paid employment, to be supported. End the poverty trap in practice as well as in political rhetoric. If a claimant obtains paid work, they keep getting benefit until the date the first actual wages paid.( not the date employment starts) If the paid work is low—part time for example --then the calculation of benefits to be paid must ensure the recipient is actually increasing overall income. That is, if benefit normally is 100 and the claimant gets paid 50 then the benefit is only reduced by 25 so the claimant now part time working gets a total income of 125. If the paid work is 100 the benefits paid becomes 50. The present system where benefits are reduced by all paid work income, means ( due to loss of other automatic unemployment related benefits- such as housing benefit etc) a person has to earn well over the benefit before it is worth taking up paid employment. Taxation especially specific income tax and employee contribution of National Insurance must be allowed for in any such calculation. Earning must always result in more income.