来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2022年7月12日
The increase in the level of child poverty in north-east England in the year 2020-21, to 38%, is an ominous sign of the shape of things to come. What such statistics mean in human terms is that millions of people are getting into debt; making choices between heating and eating; and finding essentials have moved out of reach. As the school holidays approach, the outlook for children who rely during term time on free school meals is bleak.
2020-21年，英格兰东北部的儿童贫困水平上升至38%，这是未来形势的一个不祥征兆。这样的统计数字对人类来说意味着数百万人负债；在取暖和吃饭之间做出选择；寻找必需品变得遥不可及。随着学校假期的临近，在学期期间依赖免费学校膳食的孩子们的前景黯淡。
Because of the £20 weekly uplift in universal credit payments, introduced to help people manage through the pandemic, the incomes of the poorest 20% of households in the UK rose by 4% overall during this period. Poverty had been predicted to rise following the withdrawal of the increase. But for reasons including the large number of people in the north-east who have yet to transition to universal credit from the previous system, the temporary relief provided by the Covid measures passed the region by. Researchers for the End Child Poverty coalition of charities also registered increases in child poverty in Wales and parts of the south-east. In total, 3.6 million UK children are defined as being in poverty, with the north-east having the highest rate.
为了帮助人们应对疫情，统一福利额度每周上调了20英镑，在此期间，英国最贫穷的20%家庭的收入总体增长了4%。据预测，在取消上调后，贫困人口将会增加。但由于东北部大量人口尚未从以前的体系过渡到统一福利等原因，新冠疫情措施带来的临时救济没有惠及该地区。慈善机构联盟“终结儿童贫困”的研究人员也发现，威尔士和东南部部分地区的儿童贫困人数有所增加。英国总共有360万儿童被定义为贫困儿童，东北部地区的贫困儿童比例最高。
When combined with data including annual supermarket inflation, which hit 8.3% last month, and soaring energy prices, this latest report is even more sobering. So are the experiences described by those who are worst affected, who are disproportionately lone parents and disproportionately living in households that include a person who is disabled. Because of the crisis surrounding energy supply and costs, campaigners and politicians have pointed to October – when the energy price cap is predicted to rise dramatically – as a cliff-edge to watch out for. What these findings show is how very grave the cost of living crisis already is.
当结合包括年度超市通货膨胀(上个月达到8.3%)和飙升的能源价格在内的数据时，这份最新报告更加发人深省。那些受影响最严重的人所描述的经历也是如此，他们不成比例地是单亲父母，不成比例地生活在有残疾人的家庭中。因为此次危机与能源供应和生活成本紧密相关，活动人士和政界人士指出，10月份——预计能源价格上限将大幅上升——是一个需要警惕的悬崖边缘。这些发现表明，生活成本危机已经非常严重。
The supermarket chain Asda announced last week that its cafes would offer meals for £1 to under-16s during the school holidays. Many councils and food banks will also support families while schools are closed. But such short-term fixes are obviously not adequate to the task, which is to stop millions of children from being harmed, both in the present and in the future, because they don’t have the opportunities and resources that everyone needs in order to reach their potential.
阿斯达连锁超市上周宣布，在学校假期期间，其小餐馆将为16岁以下儿童提供1英镑的膳食。许多地方政府和食品银行也将在学校停课期间为家庭提供支持。但是，这种短期的解决方法显然不足以完成阻止数百万儿童在现在和将来受到伤害的任务，因为这些儿童没有每个人都需要的机会和资源来发挥他们的潜力。
Last week the Conservative peer Lady Stroud launched a commission aimed at formulating a cross-party poverty strategy, and said the issue would define the next general election. On current showing, her party’s leadership election seems more likely to be defined by its absence, as candidates make wild promises of tax cuts that are more like threats to the millions of people whose prospects depend not only on benefit levels but also on public investment in education, health and transport. Levelling up was the new vocabulary of Boris Johnson’s government for the old challenge of disadvantage. It looks as though his successor may be as unfit as he was to meet it.
上周，保守党上议员斯特劳德夫人成立了一个委员会，旨在制定一个跨党派的扶贫战略，并表示这个问题将决定下一次大选。从目前的情况来看，她所在政党的领导人选举似乎更有可能更有可能被这个议题的缺席所定义，因为候选人做出了疯狂的减税承诺，而这些承诺更像是对数百万人的威胁，这些人的前景不仅取决于福利水平，还取决于教育、医疗和交通方面的公共投资。“均衡发展”是鲍里斯·约翰逊政府针对弱势群体这一老旧挑战的新词汇。看来他的继任者可能和他一样不称职。