Inequality creates hardship for poor people

Reading has areas of deprivation, despite its affluence.

Although Berkshire is home to the affluent towns of Wokingham and Windsor, there are also striking inequalities within the county.

Research by the Joseph Rowntree Trust has found that in the richest parts of Reading fewer than one in 20 people of working age are on benefits.

But in deprived areas of Reading such as Whitley one in five people rely on state support.

Anti-poverty groups say that inequality creates hardship for poor residents.

Professor Richard Wilkinson is an expert on income inequalities at the Equality Trust.

He said being poor in an affluent area could be a demoralising experience.

"It can make you feel like a failure, it can make you feel you're looked down on, that you don't count," he said.

Fiercely unequal

Helen Longworth, policy and communications manager for Oxfam's UK poverty programme, agreed.

She said: "Society is fiercely unequal and getting more so.

"Being poor somewhere you can see people living rich and affluent lives is really heartbreaking."

Kathryn Deacon is a single mother of two living in Reading, who says she can only afford one week of food a month.

Her income is just above the poverty threshold of £1,000 a month.

"I can only pay for one week's food on my income and the rest goes on my credit card," said Kathryn.

"I get £250 child maintenance, child benefit is £134, income support is £314, and I get tax credits of £396, which gives me £1,114 a month to live on.

"Because I own my own house, I lose £420 of that on my mortgage. My bills come to £598, so that leaves a difference about £40 to buy food and clothes."

Kathryn said she did not go out to work as she would struggle to afford childcare and would not be able to stay at home and look after her children.

"I'm very lucky that I do get child tax credits and I can stay at home with my children," she said.

"I have my own house and a roof over my head, I have my own property."

No Christmas

However, Kathryn said her children wore second-hand clothes, rarely had new toys and that she could not afford day trips out.

"I think we live in a society of too much and I try to teach them that they don't need too much," she said.

Elsewhere in Berkshire, Carolyn and her husband from Bracknell struggled to cope with a spell of unemployment two years ago.

"We were getting the interest on the mortgage paid, and we were getting some benefits, but it was still difficult even to survive," she said.

"You could get food, but everything else you had to go without.

"We had no Christmas. We had always worked and it was a big shock to the system.

"At the time all our children were quite young. They've never had a lot of what other children always had."

Carolyn said she and her husband had since found work.