The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Poverty in Britain: Mrs Isaac's fight against poverty

2022-11-26T13:08:29.327Z


Loneliness, insecurity, illness: Christine Isaacs from Leeds knows what it means to be poor – even more so since inflation. But the 69-year-old also noticed how things could change.


Enlarge image

Christine Isaacs, 69, in her neighborhood in north Leeds

Photo: Danni Maibaum / DER SPIEGEL

She's there earlier.

Ten minutes before the appointment, Christine Isaacs sits quietly at her neighborhood Costa Coffee, waiting.

Her place is at the back, behind two corners, like she's hiding in a snail shell.

The opposite is planned.

The meeting was preceded by many conversations, again and again on the phone, via text message.

In the summer she told SPIEGEL about her life.

Isaacs is a warm person, her eyes are warm, her almost comfortable English influenced by life in Yorkshire, England.

She wants to tell how poverty has shaped her life.

What it means to be poor this winter.

And about an idea of ​​how inequality could be combated – also elsewhere.

In recent years, Isaacs has often spoken about her experiences, on stage, but also in videos and in discussion groups.

In her hometown of Leeds, she is involved with the Poverty Truth Commission, an initiative to ensure that poverty is no longer just a problem for the poor.

Christine Isaacs is 69 years old, has three children and was almost always a single parent.

No stable income.

LS17 Lingfield Estate north of town difficult area.

Today three grandchildren.

654 pounds pension per month, the equivalent of 760 euros.

For years she was afraid of not being able to take care of her children, of losing custody.

In addition to health problems, Isaacs was particularly concerned about the realization that he would never be able to get out of this life.

The biggest change in recent months was not that the money was missing again, says Christine Isaacs.

But how lonely the uncertainty makes them.

»Today I can't even say whether I'm using the little money I have sensibly.

Gas, food, electricity - everything is somehow getting more expensive, but you don't know when and how.

I lose track and because of that I usually hide, just like the neighbors.«

Only those who pay in advance get electricity

The government has been sending her money for her electricity bill since September, the equivalent of 76 euros every four weeks.

It's more than Isaacs has paid before, less than she's paying now.

Isaacs doesn't use much, and Vladimir Putin didn't have to teach her how to save electricity.

The subsidy now at least covers basic needs.

Because her electricity meter, like millions of other Britons, was equipped with a prepaid card years ago as part of an act of the preventive welfare state, which she has to top up herself, Isaacs can now track down to the cent how long her credit will last for showering and turning on the lights.

Only those who pay in advance get electricity.

When it comes to the problems in her apartment, she somehow always manages, she says.

Food, energy - "You can always save on yourself, even if it makes you sad," says Isaacs.

What's really bad, however, is that she can hardly visit her grandchildren because of the price increases because she doesn't have the money for the trips.

"It robs me of my dignity." One of them suffers from autism, she says.

If she doesn't see him for more than a week, he hardly recognizes her.

Every encounter is then pure stress.

She last saw him a month ago.

Some residents describe Leeds as a collection of villages and problems.

A deindustrialized city in the north of England with no real center or destination for the future.

Isaacs hasn't been in the now nicely renovated inner city for a long time.

'The shops there don't have price tags in the windows.

I don't need to go in there," she says, "it's for students and the rich." That's also why we met at a coffee shop on the outskirts.

Many things, says Isaacs, were no different even before inflation.

"It just didn't interest anyone."

The prepaid electricity meter in the hallway is an example of how the state deals with poverty today.

In addition, there were always new concepts in work and family counseling, case managers.

"Less and less time, longer and longer letters from the authorities," says Christine Isaacs.

Your life is not least a mirror of the neoliberal development of the past 40 years.

What began in Great Britain with "There's no such thing as society" and a lot of pressure from above is now being continued in Germany with discussions about Hartz IV sanctions.

Demand and promote.

Dealing with poverty and inequality was and is often about personal responsibility and efficiency, not about empathy.

Christine Isaacs has spoken openly about this for a long time.

For almost ten years she has revealed her life to others to show what it really means to be poor.

Talking can liberate.

But Isaacs says she's increasingly finding it more of a burden.

As she talks, she holds onto the Costa Coffee cup as if it could be an anchor.

And when she leaves the café, she carefully crosses the street.

It seems as if the past few weeks have left her with doubts as to whether anything can really be changed for the better.

And whether the Poverty Truth Commission can change anything at all.

For the commission, people affected by poverty, business people, politicians and administrative employees meet several times for months.

First it is about the life stories of those affected, then about practical solutions.

The idea behind it is to confront prominent people from the city not only with sad stories, but also with concrete problems.

The participants are supported by church communities and foundations, and social workers accompany the discussions.

The first group met in Leeds in 2014, today there are branches across the country.

The need seems there.

At the same time, the idea of ​​bringing poor people into the same room with clerks and politicians initially seems pathetic.

Every election campaign is full of talk about respect.

A »Humanifesto« for the city

But Issacs recounts how, after the initial chatter, she and the other affected members of the group kicked their way free.

How they became the hosts.

And use the attention to change something.

These were demands that the city council could hardly counter in direct discussions.

A father once asked why he had to buy new school uniforms for his daughters every year.

Couldn't the city also lend them and pass them on?

Suddenly it worked.

Another time, a woman simply brought her government mail.

A letter, 14 pages.

She threw it at the city official and asked, Can you explain it to me?

He couldn't.

In the meantime, a regulation regulates how long letters from officials to their citizens can be.

They are simple, actionable concerns.

At the end Christine Isaacs presented the collected results with a player from the local rugby team in the city museum.

They called it »Humanifesto«, a manifesto for human togetherness.

"Blaming 'the suits' does not make things better," it says: "Blaming the suits doesn't make things better."

Afterwards, they wrested the promises from those responsible that they would continue immediately.

The Poverty Truth Commission uses the methods of the welfare state, which strives for efficiency, to change it itself: constantly listening and making suggestions for improvement.

Lifelong learning for politicians, if you will.

Who could say no to that?

Christine Isaacs has served on the commission twice, because how often does someone like her get the mayor's hearing?

This experience bridged worlds for her.

And she is certain her involvement in Leeds has already made a difference.

And yet, she says, after all the meetings, a bitter realization awaited her: no matter how much she talked, in the end it always went back to her life in a snail shell.

She won't let that go.

Even the Poverty Truth Commission is not enough to change the imbalances in British society.

Britain is currently facing its longest recession since the Second World War.

Never since records began has the standard of living on the island fallen as sharply as it has recently.

But while poverty is growing so rapidly, the focus is on even tougher savings rather than aid.

Also in Leeds.

Christine Isaacs and her fellow campaigners already have an answer: they are currently planning the next commission.

This contribution is part of the Global Society project

Expand areaWhat is the Global Society project?

Under the title "Global Society", reporters from

Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe

report on injustices in a globalized world, socio-political challenges and sustainable development.

The reports, analyses, photo series, videos and podcasts appear in a separate section in the foreign section of SPIEGEL.

The project is long-term and is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

A detailed FAQ with questions and answers about the project can be found here.

AreaWhat does the funding look like in concrete terms?open

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has been supporting the project since 2019 for an initial period of three years with a total of around 2.3 million euros - around 760,000 euros per year.

In 2021, the project was extended by almost three and a half years until spring 2025 under the same conditions.

AreaIs the journalistic content independent of the foundation?open

Yes.

The editorial content is created without the influence of the Gates Foundation.

AreaDo other media also have similar projects?open

Yes.

With the support of the Gates Foundation, major European media outlets such as The Guardian and El País have set up similar sections on their news sites with Global Development and Planeta Futuro respectively.

Did SPIEGEL already have similar projects? open

In recent years, SPIEGEL has already implemented two projects with the European Journalism Center (EJC) and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: the "OverMorgen Expedition" on global sustainability goals and the journalistic refugee project "The New Arrivals ", within the framework of which several award-winning multimedia reports on the topics of migration and flight have been created.

Expand areaWhere can I find all publications on the Global Society?

The pieces can be found at SPIEGEL on the Global Society topic page.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-11-26

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.