Poverty and hardship in post-war Britain

The financial struggles of the working class in post-war Britain concern poverty, the condition of lacking adequate financial resources for a certain standard of living; in 2021, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported that about 1 in 5 (20%) of people in the UK lived in poverty.

2 articles, 1 book · about 1 hr 1 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   Poverty, participation and choice · Joseph Rowntree Foundation · 8 min read

   Among people with the lowest incomes, about 30 per cent find it difficult to afford all the basic necessities and are forced to make hard choices between them. Their possessions and activities vary more than those of better-off people, which appears to be because they cannot afford everything asked about in the survey and make different choices. Many of society's expectations require individuals and families to spend money, and people in modern Britain are assessed according to their income, spending and use of time. Townsend recognized that someone is poor if they cannot afford to participate fully in the society of which they are part.

2. Read
   

   the financial struggles of the working class in post-war britain · Wikipedia · 53 min read

   In 1961 to 62, 35% of men in the lowest social classes had experienced at least one spell of sickness of four days or more, compared with 18% of men in the highest social classes. The figures show health differences between social classes, which characterised the continued existence of poverty in the 1960s.

3. Book
   

   The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists · Bookshop.org

   The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell tells of working men joined by Owen, whose attacks on capitalist greed and dishonesty rouse them from political quietism.

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