Monthly News from The Equality Trust (October 2018)

We email a newsletter to all our supporters, like the one below, rounding up all the inequality-related news for the past month. If you want to get the latest inequality news quicker and sent direct to your inbox, just sign up to The Equality Trust newsletter here. Thank you. 

Budget 2018: The Chancellor’s budget was particularly disappointing from an inequality perspective as the misguided policy of increasing the personal allowance continued. This policy helps the rich far more than the poor as we explained back in 2015 and which the IFS and others confirmed this week in their distributional analyses. At least there was a bit more money for Universal Credit which is something we were calling for with a coalition of other excellent organisations. And thank you to everyone who promoted our Wealth Tracker findings ahead of the budget to emphasise where the money could be found to fix our various societal ills. You helped us reach a huge amount of people.

UN Special Rapporteur visit: We are delighted to report that we have been invited to TWO sessions with the UN Special Rapporteur, Philip Alston, who will be visiting the UK in November to investigate the state of poverty and human rights in the UK. In connection with our youth work programme (see below) we are also introducing some of the young people we are working with to Mr Alston so he can hear directly from them about their experiences of living in the UK today. We are pleased and proud to be taking YOUR concerns to the highest levels and to be giving voice to young people whose views are so often overlooked by those in power. You can read the submission that we have made to Mr Alston here.

Educational Materials: Our project to produce inequality-related educational materials for schools is now underway and we have funding to develop these. A big thank you to those teachers who responded to our first call out – and we are still interested to hear from more teachers who might want to share their expertise with us and get involved in this project. If so, please contact us at: info@equalitytrust.org.uk – thank you.

Young Equality Campaigners: We will shortly be providing an update on this work ahead of the next Big Give Christmas Challenge (27 Nov – 4 Dec) which will again be devoted to supporting our youth programme. Thank you for your continued support. We can’t do what we do without you.

Best wishes, Wanda, Jo, Rianna, Camilla, Henry & Bill.
The Equality Trust Team

You can help support our work in various ways: ACT to tackle inequality where you live by joining or forming a local group. DONATE to help us do more, the generosity of our supporters sustains our work. AFFILIATE your organisation to our affiliate programme to work closely with us. FUNDRAISE for us to give us more secure, longer term income. FORWARD this bulletin to people you know who might be interested in our work

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LATEST BLOGS & COMMENT

Pick of the Month: Our Key Role on Commission for Collective Voice
– The Digital Divide: Inequality in the Age of the Internet (Guest Blog)
– Inspirational: The Work of Equality Now Uganda (Guest Blog)
– Monthly News from The Equality Trust (September 2018)

LATEST LOCAL GROUP NEWS: Plenty going on around the groups this month as The Inner Level events are in full swing and plans are also being made for 2019. Full details here…

KEY DEVELOPMENTS AND REPORTS

Pick of the Month: JRF highlights the scourge of in-work poverty
– Manchester Uni highlights north-south early deaths divide
– EHRC says Britain’s equality efforts soured by backwards steps
– OECD highlights educational inequality in UK
– IPPR makes proposals for taxing wealth
– IFS says £19bn needed to end austerity
– CAP says local welfare schemes on brink of collapse
– Tax Justice UK says tax wealth to fix NHS
– Lancet says world suffering huge mental health crisis
– IFS says young people with deposits still can’t afford homes
– IPCC says only 12 years left to fix climate change

INEQUALITY IN THE NEWS

Pick of the Month: The UK has created a crisis in childhood
– Universal Credit fuelling homelessness
– DWP turning “deaf ear” to problems with Universal Credit
– Wealth gushing up not trickling down
– Homicide rate spikes in England & Wales
– Royal Mail posts excessive CEO pay figure
– Universal Credit to hit poorest hardest
– Spirit Level in Top 20 reads for MPs
– Universal Credit – the new poll tax?
– Worsening inequality could hit US credit rating
– Zero-hours workers not loving the flexibility
– School staff buying food for hungry kids
– The rise of cashless Britain

BEST INEQUALITY READS AND LISTENS

Pick of the Month: The Myth of Meritocracy
– UK not doing well for educational equality
– Institutional investors discover income inequality
– We need to be more equal to trust each other
– Poverty can be tackled by the state
– Inequality and violence
– Part (1/2) billionaire narcissists on earth
– Part (2/2) billionaire narcissists in space
– Divided UK – material differences create social distances
– Homicide – inequality’s most disturbing side effect
– Status anxiety – the rise of the Valley Soldiers
– Do we all need inequality therapy?
– Schools cannot fix poverty alone
– The City of London and the finance curse

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT!