首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The government has launched its consultation on better measures of child poverty, but it really has to be asked, better for whom
The government has launched its consultation on better measures of child poverty, but it really has to be asked, better for whom
admin
2015-09-26
82
问题
The government has launched its consultation on better measures of child poverty, but it really has to be asked, better for whom? This is a government that looks set to preside over a truly dramatic increase in child poverty. The Institute for Fiscal Studies projects that after a decade of steady reductions in child poverty rates, 300,000 more children will be living in poverty in the U. K. by 2015. Big cuts to tax credits, a three-year freeze in child benefit, uprating out-of-work benefits using CPI rather than the more generous RPI—all will make vulnerable families poor over the course of this parliament.
So what does the government do about it? Rather than review its policies and ask how it can seek to fulfill its legal commitments under the Child Poverty Act 2010, it launches a consultation on the way that child poverty is measured.
Poverty is a complex phenomenon and no single indicator can fully capture the condition. The CPA 2010 recognizes this, urging governments to make progress against four specific measures; relative poverty, absolute poverty, material deprivation and persistent poverty. Alongside this, we also track numerous other indicators of child well-being in the U. K. such as educational achievement, health outcomes and subjective experience.
Both lain Duncan Smith and David Laws sought to convince the audience at the launch of the consultation that the government was not in retreat from the income measures contained in the CPA 2010. But in truth, the consultation document is peppered with digs at the relative measure, suggesting that changes to this indicator do not tell us anything meaningful about "real" poverty.
The consultation also seeks to dilute the relevance of income by developing a "multidimensional indicator" of child poverty. This indicator will blend together measures of worklessness, unmanageable debt and family stability among others to produce a single headline number that can be tracked over time.
At best, the government is combining poverty with its many consequences. At worst, it is simply changing the yardstick against which they will be measured.
Consider, for example, the proposal that parental worklessness be a key defining feature of the new child poverty measure. Using current definitions, 60% of children living in poverty today have at least one parent in work. Any measure that insists poverty is about worklessness will simply airbrush these 1.4 million children out of the picture altogether.
Equally worryingly, the consultation insists that any new poverty measure must resonate with the public. The latest British Social Attitudes survey shows just how widespread negative views of vulnerable groups in society are, but also makes clear that much of this shift in public opinion has been caused by current and previous government policies.
So, should we expect better measures of child poverty as a result of the consultation? Not better for the children growing up in low-income families for sure. And given the broader costs to society of child poverty, not better for anyone else—except, perhaps, a government that we suspect may be trying to avoid being held to account.
The author’s attitude towards parental unemployment as a child poverty measure is______.
选项
A、supporting
B、opposing
C、neutral
D、uncertain
答案
B
解析
态度题。文章第七段最后一句提到,任何认为贫困就是失业的提议,只会把140万名儿童划分在贫困线以外,由此可知,作者并不赞同把父母失业作为贫困儿童的衡量标准,所以[B]“反对的”为正确答案。[A]“支持的”、[C]“中立的”和[D]“不确定的”与文意不符,均可排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/2vXK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Nowadays,mostcollegesanduniversitiesencouragestudentsto
Nowadays,mostcollegesanduniversitiesencouragestudentsto
BBC’sweatherforecastisa______programme.
BBC’sweatherforecastisa______programme.
Insuchachanging,complexsocietyformerlysimplesolutionstoinformationalneedsbecomecomplicated.Manyoflife’sproblems
Globalwarmingisthegradualincreaseofthetemperatureoftheearth’sloweratmosphereasaresultoftheincreaseingreenho
IfyouhavereallybeenstudyingEnglishforsolong,it’sabouttimeyou______abletowritelettersinEnglish.
Youshouldknowbetterthan______yourlittlesisterathomebyherself.
AntonioSanzmightaswellhavewonthelottery.In1965,whenthesmall,curly-hairedSpaniardwas10,anAmericanprofessoras
Notuntilthreeyearsago_____toworkoutside.
随机试题
水井酸化后,在相同的注入量条件下压力(),说明酸化措施有效。
患者女性,42岁,1999年体检发现左甲状腺肿块,甲状腺核素显像为冷结节,CT检查示甲状腺内有多个占位病变,血Tg88μg/L,作左甲状腺全切除术及颈淋巴清扫术,术后病理示甲状腺滤泡状腺癌。2002年2月开始咳嗽,痰中带血丝,X线胸片示甲状腺癌肺转移,1
男性,37岁。急刹车致使方向盘挤压上腹部16小时,上腹部、腰部及右肩疼痛,持续性伴恶心、呕吐。查体:体温38.4℃,上腹部肌紧张明显,有压痛,反跳痛不明显,无移动性浊音,肠鸣音存在。怀疑胰腺损伤。胰腺损伤在各种腹部损伤中所占比例为
木通的功效是石韦的功效是
下列关于岩溶发育强弱的说法正确的是()。
企业兼并与合并是市场经济和竞争发展的产物,国家进一步加大企业兼并重组力度,具体体现包括()。
下列关于堤防填筑作业的说法错误的是()。
关于会员交易席位的使用,下列说法中正确的是( )。
根据左图规律,右图“?”处应为()。
监控项目工作的输出,不包括()。
最新回复
(
0
)