Why I don’t stick to footballBy
Marcus RashfordIn football, you are always stronger in numbers. With a shared focus, people from different cultures, nationalities, races, sexual orientations, political affiliations and religions can unite to achieve incredible things. When you pull on that national team shirt, rivalry subsides and is replaced with a shared desire to win. When fans step into that stadium, for 90 minutes they feel a part of something, a collective, able to leave any worries outside those turnstiles. To many, it is a religion. To me, it’s still a dream.
You grow up idolising figures in this game who turn out to be just like you and me. Human beings with human emotions and who, more than likely, have overcome some level of adversity in their career. Disappointingly for some, the ‘
stick to football’ advice doesn’t cut it where I’m from. See, when my community had nothing to call their own, they always found something in the way of kindness to give me. I am a product of their compassion, of their drive and of their willingness to offer me more than what was on my doorstep. I’d be doing that community and my family a disservice if I did not use my platform to speak on behalf of the millions whose voices are not being heard.
A shoulder injury has given me ample time to reflect. While I wish I could say significant progress has been made to stabilise households suffering from food insecurity across the UK, the reality is it’s become much worse — 27 per cent worse than pre-pandemic. In fact, you could fill 27 Wembley stadiums with the 2.5 million children who are struggling to know where their next meal is coming from today. Low-income families are now faced with further deadlines, whether the end of furlough or the social security cut.
I’m not under the illusion that those in power have an easy job. There aren’t many of us who’d want to switch places, but regardless of the issues facing those decision-makers, our children should never be deemed secondary. Short-term solutions aren’t going to cut it. We need long-term planning executed well. Ultimately success comes down to communication — and this is where we have been falling short. Anyone who has followed my Child Food Poverty Task Force will know we have tried to increase uptake of the government’s Healthy Start scheme — which benefits low-income pregnant women and children under four. An extra 62,000 people in England are now using the scheme, but 40 per cent of those eligible (216,000 families) are still not registered. These parents will likely be found in communities just like mine — no internet, no high street, just word of mouth.
Adopting a grassroots approach to this child hunger pandemic is key. Those most in need of help must be able to gain access to the support available — door-to-door interaction, data capture and leaflets are vital for achieving this. The proposed digitisation of the Healthy Start scheme might bring some benefits, but it could put up barriers. Ofcom estimates 11 per cent of lower socio-economic households don’t have home internet access. Nor, frankly, do they have 55p per minute to activate the prepaid card via a telephone. It’s also problematic that those using the scheme have to reapply, squashing the work the Task Force has done to support the uptake.
Children are returning to school — a welcome step for some, a daunting prospect for others impacted by lack of social interaction and lack of access to learning during the pandemic. This summer, I spoke to a primary school teacher who had been concerned about a child who was continually falling asleep. The teacher eventually realised she was using her free school meal eligibility to wrap up food to take home for her younger siblings who didn’t qualify, understanding it could be all they’d eat that day. Stories like this are not uncommon. In fact, about half of families with children living in food insecurity are not eligible for free school meals. Education can be a positive avenue out of poverty, but if children are hungry, how can we expect them to engage in learning? That’s why I am calling on the government to expand free school meal eligibility, in line with the National Food Strategy recommendations.
Party politics has never interested me. What interests me is working together to find sustainable solutions. The long-term effects of a global pandemic will not be resolved with short-term relief packages. So it’s time for us all to unite with the passion we saw during the Euros and make sure every child in this country is given a fair chance, and that child hunger is eradicated. No child should be starting 20 yards behind any other just because of the community they live in. It’s time to level up.
WRITTEN BY
Marcus Rashford
SOURCE
The lad's doing OK, but I'm getting a bit fed up waiting for him to come up with a properly costed solution to funding social care. He must have a bit of spare time to sort it out; perhaps after he's told us how to solve global warming? I wouldn't want him to get bored.
Now, in my serious voice, let's remember that the little girl who was "
using her free school meal eligibility to wrap up food to take home for her younger siblings who didn’t qualify, understanding it could be all they’d eat that day." isn't living in some third-world ghetto, she lives in England, a country which, in terms of Gross Domestic Product, is the
fifth richest country in the world. Let that sink in for a moment.
On average for the last five years. the
rise in average income for the richest 20% has ibeen 4.7%. The poorest 20%, on the other hand, have seen an average
fall in income of 1.6%.
The richest 1% of people in the UK have almost 25% of the total wealth. Also, a recent study found that the top 1% had almost £800bn
more wealth than was suggested by official statistics, meaning that inequality has been even higher than previously thought. Researchers said the extra billions was a
conservative estimate and could well be more.
Here's a great statistic, the total wealth of the UK’s
six richest people is more than that of the bottom
13.2 million people added together, according to new research highlighting a widening gulf between rich and poor.
The majority of people living in poverty in the UK last year were in working households says yet another of these seemingly interminable reports.
While the report said the adage that ‘
work pays’ was still true, it found the average person in a working household was currently 32 per cent more likely to be in poverty now than in 1996.
The report also found households were affected by the rise in working poverty differently. Single working parent households saw the most dramatic increase, with the proportion in working poverty rising from 20 per cent in 2010 to 40 per cent last year.
I will now barrage you with even more facts. Sorry if I'm being boring.
There were 4.3 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2019-20.1 That's 31 per cent of children, or nine in a classroom of 30.2
49 per cent of children living in lone-parent families are in poverty.3 Lone parents face a higher risk of poverty due to the lack of an additional earner, low rates of maintenance payments, gender inequality in employment and pay, and childcare costs.
Children from black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to be in poverty: 46 per cent are now in poverty, compared with 26 per cent of children in White British families.
Work does not provide a guaranteed route out of poverty in the UK. 75 per cent of children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one person works.
Children in large families are at a far greater risk of living in poverty – 47 per cent of children living in families with 3 or more children live in poverty.
Childcare and housing are two of the costs that take the biggest toll on families’ budgets.
Between 1998 and 2003 reducing child poverty was made a priority - with a comprehensive strategy and investment in children - and the number of children in poverty fell by 600,000.
Removing the two-child limit and the benefit cap would lift 100,000s of children out of poverty.
Increasing child benefit would substantially reduce child poverty as well as providing support to all families with the extra costs children bring.
(
Updated March 2021. All poverty figures are after housing costs)
All of the above, and we are, as stated earlier, living in the 5
th largest economy in the world.
Is anyone surprised that Marcus Rashford is angry, and shouldn't we all be just as angry as Marcus?
n.b.
I've taken my figures etc. from multiple sources so haven't named them. However, you can check them all using Google, it's what I did. I hope, also, you can appreciate that I've done my best to keep politics out of my little diatribe... for once.
