Research Paper on:
Poverty and Structural Inequalities

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
these have been to some extent successful, the problem is by no means eradicated. It is interesting to note that whilst the government clearly states that "the national anti-poverty strategy  must reach beyond raising incomes" W&P Committee, 2004) it tends to look towards anti-poverty measures solely in economic terms; the amount per child which would be needed to eliminate poverty  entirely, for instance. The DSS, in 1999, warned that poverty should be seen as one element of social exclusion, and that other factors including "unemployment,  poor skills, . . poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown" (DSS, 1999) should also be taken into account alongside low income. Consequently, as the W&P  Committee admits, there has been a tendency to focus policy responses on increasing income, as a primary target of anti-policy strategies. Platt (2002) in  her study of the relationship between social exclusion and ethnic minorities in Britain, notes that it is impossible to single out one or two factors when looking at the causes  of poverty; the complexities of social, cultural and economic interaction between different groups in society has to be considered as a whole. Link and Bibus (2000) examine the British tendency  to adopt American social models, and consider how appropriate the American welfare-to-work system has been in dealing with British issues of poverty and social exclusion.  Flaherty et al (2004) consider poverty from both an international and an international perspective, and provide a thorough and effective summation of the points expressed in other reports and  publications. They note, for instance, that there are constant changes and developments in the British social and economic structure which means that poverty is no longer confined to specific social