Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 8

Making Ends Meet

Livelihoods in Cardiff:
Surviving/Coping/Managing

Research Findings

Be Humankindh
Making Ends Meet
Livelihoods in Cardiff: Surviving/Coping/Managing

How do people living in poverty actually survive on a day-to-day basis, and what
can be learnt from this to enable them to develop sustainable livelihoods?
This summary of the study reveals the reality of how 46 women and men survive
in Splott and Riverside, two districts close to the centre of Cardiff. Using a
participatory qualitative method based on the ‘Sustainable Livelihoods Approach’
(SLA) in both communities men and women were interviewed individually. This
study builds on the 2006 research centred in Thornaby on Tees, entitled “When
Ends Don’t Meet”.
The interviews were undertaken by two of Oxfam’s partners in Wales, the South Riverside Community
Development Centre (SRCDC) and the Splotlands Credit Union (SCU). One aim of the study was to
encourage the partnership process between local community organisations; these two organisations
had not worked in partnership prior to this work. To this end, they received training in the use of the
SLA and they were able to adapt the process to meet their needs during this period. The demographic
characteristics of the 46 women and men interviewed for the study reflect each organisation’s client
group. Residents of Splott (an inner city ward to the east of the centre) are predominantly white working
class with smaller pockets of minority ethnic communities including Gypsy and Traveller communities,
Somalis and East Europeans. Riverside (an inner city ward to the west of the centre) hosts a large Asian
community, including Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Yemeni and Afghani men and women. Both areas are home
to a number of refugees and asylum seekers.1
Present policy responses to poverty in the UK focus primarily on concerns around financial resources,
failing to take into account other types of resources, or the connections between different resources or
lack of them. Such factors are crucial in understanding how people live, and how best to intervene in
policy and practice terms to build up their livelihoods capacity. They may also hold clues as to why
certain women and men are unable to access formal employment. The Sustainable Livelihoods
Approach2 analyses the existing resources people have and how they can be built upon to achieve
a sustainable livelihood.
The SLA provides reference points for analysing resources; influences (positive and/or negative),
and strategies that people adopt, that impact on their ability to survive being in poverty.
The approach is based on core principles that it is
■ People centred – supporting people to achieve their own livelihood goals
■ Holistic – recognising the ‘multiple influences, actors, strategies and outcomes in peoples lives
■ Dynamic – seeking to understand change and how to support patterns of positive change
■ Building on strengths – recognising everyone’s inherent potential
■ Making links between the macro and the micro – bridging the gap between individual lives
and wider policies and institutions that affect them
■ Sustainable – in a social and institutional sense as well as economic and environmental.

1. Most minority ethnic groups have higher rates of poverty than the average for the population and rates of poverty are highest for
Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Black Africans.
2. See DFID framework (1999)
2
Livelihoods Framework

OUTCOME
Human
Pu
bl al
Vulnerabilities ic hysic Policies
P
Shocks Institutions
RESOURCES LIVELIHOOD
Trends OUTCOME
STRATEGIES Processes
Changes

ial So
inanc cia
l
F
OUTCOME

Adaptation of DfID Sustainable Livelihoods Framework

The picture of sustainable


livelihoods in Splott and Riverside
In general, the resources that seemed to have contributed most to someone improving their employability
were as follows:
■ Human – skills in community development, small business set-up and the ability to take vocational
courses.
■ Social – around family provision of loans and childcare.
■ Public – in the form of regular transport to and from employment locations.
■ Physical – a home in a good state of repair with enough room to accommodate the family, and public
transport to enable access to work places.
As this study specifically targeted people experiencing poverty, it is no surprise that for the respondents
interviewed, the financial resources are the weakest aspect of the livelihoods picture
Another strength of the approach is that by identifying movement, both negative and positive, between
sets of resources, useful lessons can be extracted regarding solutions to deprivation. These have been
described as “ladders” (positive movement) and “shocks” (negative movement).
In the next section, we summarise our key observations and main findings within each of the resource areas.

The use of the sustainable approach


Although this study provided a snapshot of the lives of 46 people in two inner city districts of Cardiff, it has
produced qualitative data otherwise difficult to obtain. Such data is key to complementing the statistical
information that already exists about levels of employment and benefit take-up.
The study found that:
■ Although paid work is a fundamental means of maintaining a sustainable livelihood, there are many
other social, human and financial factors that play important roles in contributing to the livelihoods
of people on low incomes.
■ The study also identified a vicious circle of depression, debt and living on benefits into which women,
in particular, seemed to fall, and certain shocks or triggers into this situation.

3
■ Women need access to reliable and continuous, quality childcare, appropriate to their needs
and which inspires them with trust, and confidence, to enable them to both work and gain the
qualifications they need to access well-paid work.
■ What people most need are stable jobs with progression prospects, rather than just any job.
Parents also require flexible working hours to fit in with their childrens’ needs.
■ We need to improve the way we recompense those who care for our children and other community
members. This vital role in our society should receive greater recognition, whether it is parents,
grandparents, extended family or others who carry it out.
■ There is a need to provide Asian women with career advice addressed specifically to their needs
for employment that is sensitive to their cultural requirements.
■ People would benefit from improved public transport between the communities and potential
employment opportunities.
■ There is not enough quality, accessible advice on debt and how to avoid it.
■ Reform of the tax credit system is needed to avoid recoverable overpayments caused by income
fluctuating during the award period.

The findings
Human Resources
These include the skills, knowledge, ability to work and good health that together enable people to pursue
different livelihood strategies. They are required to make use of any of the other types of resources.
They are therefore necessary, but not on their own sufficient, to achieve a positive livelihoods outcome.
With some exceptions, respondents from all four groups had low basic skills levels and lacked formal
qualifications, resulting in a lack of confidence. They considered that these made them vulnerable to
poverty. However, some of the Riverside women were actually well qualified (NVQ, Masters degree,
diploma in banking, ECDL etc.) but despite these, their rate of employment was low. Likely factors were:
■ Caring responsibilities
■ Expectations about where work would be found
■ Not wanting to be culturally isolated
■ Lack of appropriate childcare facilities
■ Insufficient English
The unemployed men from Splott held between them two degrees and a HND, showing that having
qualifications and being white and male are not necessarily passports to employment. The Splott women
had a generally lower level of formal qualifications but felt they had high levels of people skills, life
experience and a wide variety of training. These were more likely to lead to lower paid work, such as
in caring.
Riverside men had the highest rate of employment, but the lowest levels of education. Some expressed
negative attitudes, feeling depressed at their own failure, having no expectation of change or other options
– affecting their self-confidence. They lacked time, no sense of career direction, or interest in college or
training. They complained of having to live frugally, existing from day to day.
A significant finding was the high level of depression amongst the women, especially in Splott; a third felt
they were depressed. Most affected were lone, unemployed mothers, indicating a link between difficult
financial situations and the stresses of bringing up children alone. Physical health problems were also at
high levels.

4
Social Resources
These refer to relationships of trust, and exchanges that can provide informal safety nets to formalised
common interest groupings and to networks.
Family was overwhelmingly seen as the most important such resource, by all groups, especially for the
provision of care, predominately childcare. In Riverside particularly, family was important for financial
support, such as gifts and loans. Take-up of support for people with disabilities was low, especially in the
Asian community, resulting in caring being carried out within families and among the wider community.
A small number of women from Splott have no community or social networks and it was notable that for
them, depression and a lack of wellbeing was more marked than for others. Inevitably, this impacts on
earning capability. Involvement in community activities had particularly helped the Asian women and had
led to paid work for one woman. For others, they had led to community-based courses including English.

Financial Resources
The overall picture is one of low resources and high vulnerability for all participants including those in
employment working long hours at the National Minimum Wage. Nearly half were surviving either wholly or
partially on benefits, with the white community generally being more dependent on benefits and loans than
the Asian community. The Asian community seemed to help each other more, for example with loans from
family members for business start-up and buying houses etc., which borrowers would then repay by taking
on an additional job or by working longer hours. These inevitably impacted on other resource areas such
as social. Such loans and the lack of written terms carry with them additional pressure to repay quickly
because of the need to recycle the money.
Many people received tax credits but the way they were administered had actually contributed to families
falling into debt, primarily through overpayments to those who had worked irregular hours. The system is
ill suited to those who have jobs with fluctuating hours and incomes.
The women from Splott explained that people on benefits did not know whether or not they would be
better off working or whether the pay would warrant the loss of security. There were high levels of debt
and reliance on credit. The Splott women were most affected with over three quarters mentioning multiple
debts – banks, moneylenders and credit union loans being the most mentioned.

Physical Resources
This is what people need to function productively, such as affordable, decent housing, their own transport,
reasonably priced energy, and access to advice / information.
There was substantial overcrowding among the Asian families with sharing of bedrooms and lounges and
this appeared to feed into depression. In terms of car ownership, the study highlighted its importance for
accessing employment, including for family members. Asian women were reluctant to use public transport
and therefore at a disadvantage. It is not uncommon for Asian men to work as self-employed taxi drivers.
This gives them access not only to a car but also to one large enough for all, to allow visits to extended
family elsewhere in the country.
The lack of computer ownership is a disadvantage when searching for jobs and accessing information on
the Internet. Computer ownership within the Asian community was not mentioned while in Splott it was
mentioned by eight respondents.

Public Resources
This includes public amenities, such as libraries and parks, and public transport. The most relevant of
these was public transport, used more by the participants of Splott. In Riverside, take-up of library services
was low but public spaces were seen as important.

5
So how did those interviewed
survive on low incomes?
A range of methods was reported. Women from both Riverside and Splott reported visiting their families
at times when they would be likely to be invited to eat, lowering expectations generally and “doing without”,
e.g. without eating enough, doing without new clothes. The women of Riverside relied heavily on the
support of friends, family and their local community. They would eat rice three times a day to save money.
They also did some small-scale home working, such as making ribbons.
The women of Splott took second jobs to supplement income from jobs paid at the NMW. They would
forego ordinary social activities for themselves and their children. Feeding the children and then making
do with leftovers for themselves and making a meal last two days, were tactics employed. Borrowing was
widespread and the majority of this was unmanageable debt. Splott women tended to borrow for living
expenses, whereas the men were more likely to borrow for leisure activities. Informal or ‘cash-in-hand’
work was reported and commonly used as a coping mechanism to pay debts. In one case, a woman
confessed that she shoplifted on a weekly basis, to provide herself and her children with food from Friday
to her Monday benefit payment, and another resorted regularly to prostitution, again as a way to make
ends meet, rather than for ‘extras’.
The men of Splott employed a variety of methods to make the most of benefits, such as undisclosed
support from a partner while on income support; not marrying to avoid the reduction in benefits,
cash-in-hand work as described above to supplement benefits, and renting out rooms to lodgers.
One man reluctantly resorted to crime to supplement his income support. He would have preferred to
work in the formal economy but held back by his criminal record. Only two had enough savings to rely
on for coping with emergencies. The others would have to rely on crisis loans, relatives and friends as
possible sources of assistance.

What Difference Did Race Make?


In overall terms there was little difference in the employment rates between the Asian and white
communities. Approximately half of all those interviewed were employed, with the Asian men having
a slightly higher rate than the white men.

Men and Women’s Coping Strategies


White women are in a poor position overall. They have low level qualifications, poor quality jobs (if any at
all) and bear the main responsibility for childcare. They have little money and limited social networks. Many
are in debt and this contributes to instances of low level mental health issues. While benefits and tax credits
support them, they are not building financial or social resources while on benefits, so their coping strategies
and long term future is unpredictable and makes them vulnerable to a spiral of further financial, social and
health problems.
The men from Splott are in a better position. They are more available for paid employment as they have
more marketable skills. They share and trade financial and social resources with their female partners in
a complex picture of income from benefits and earnings.
Asian women in Riverside are less likely to do paid work, have greater expectations on them as carers for
children and older people, and cultural expectations limit them more to the home environment. They are
more likely to be supported by men, as part of the family unit, which means that the poverty they may
experience will be hidden from view. They can access but do not necessarily own resources such as
transport or family business.

6
Asian women and men in Riverside are more likely to be poor because they remit money to family in other
countries from an already low income. When combined with low skilled jobs and few qualifications among
the men, and larger household size, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that they will be amongst the
financially weakest group in society, along with single mothers.

Bottom Rung of The Ladder


One particular group stood out, where their ability to make meaningful changes to their lives was very
restricted.
Four young, unemployed single mothers from Splott and one from Riverside were interviewed. They were
among the most depressed and despairing respondents. Their lack of qualifications and basic skills make
it even more difficult for them to gain employment, even if they had childcare available. Reference was
made to the ‘stigma’ of being a single mother as a further depressing factor. The social resource of family
support was also widely lacking. Again, cramped, poor quality housing was mentioned, severely affecting
the well being of these families, and three of them were experiencing severe debt problems.

Moving Up The Ladder


Subsequent to the study, we have had feed back from participants who have made changes to their
circumstances. For example:
■ Someone who worked for a bookmaker has now received training in youth work, passed their exams
and anticipates changing career.
■ A woman who ended an abusive relationship is now happier, changed jobs, earns more money and
is more positive in her outlook.
■ A man has now become the main carer to his children by accepting that the opportunities his partner
had to obtain reasonable employment were better than his, due to his health.
■ Having recognised his dyslexia as a barrier, a man has now received help / training in overcoming
his disability and his debt problems. He now sees options are opening up for him and his family.
The Splott and Riverside interviews demonstrate how aspects of social, human and financial resources
can make a difference to peoples capacity to sustain successful livelihoods, and point to the importance
of specific interventions that can improve these resources.
The study highlighted the importance of social, family and public support for surviving shocks and
maintaining mental health. Social resources help with avoiding depression that can alienate friends
and family, thereby making the depression worse. Public and physical resources were also of importance,
but less so.

Where next?
Participants reported changes over the weeks that followed the interviews. Very many of the participants
made significant or life-changing decisions as a result of the SLA process. These included learning to drive,
leaving overcrowded housing, taking educational classes and retraining.
Participants identified a need for advice on benefits / training / job opportunities as a drop-in service in
Splott and that has now been put in place. For the Riverside women, the study highlighted the fact that
they are not generally ready to make use of mainstream ‘into work’ services so a mentoring project was
set up to begin to address the issue.

7
Conclusions
This study highlights, yet again3, the link between poverty, unmanageable debt and mental ill health,
particularly anxiety and depression. Effective anti-poverty programmes should support people living
in poverty to identify and tackle underlying problems, thereby contributing to the development of their
self-esteem.
Anti-poverty and employment policies must be designed to be sensitive to the circumstances people find
themselves in and the strategies they often employ to get by. Oxfam’s observation, reinforced by a recent
4
report , is that issues highlighted in the study would be better tackled if regular and systematic engagement
with people experiencing poverty were the norm rather than an exception,
A coordinated approach that increases provision of quality debt advice is crucial. Provision of affordable
credit coupled with advice on benefit entitlement, as well as 'in work better off' assessments, would help
people climb the ladder to more sustainable livelihoods.
Increasing the flexibility of the benefits system to allow some paid community work would demonstrate that
economic activity is a route out of poverty5, and might support some people to take steps towards full-time
employment.
Government policy that seeks to move people into the first possible job – whether that job is sustainable
or not – is short sighted. Progression within employment, by investing in people and employers, would be
rewarded by making jobs sustainable and increasing workers skills and income. This would also contribute
to fewer people leaving work and falling back into poverty, in the long-term, reducing tax credit spending on
subsidising low wage employment. A factor underpinning peoples maintenance of sustainable jobs is their
ability to access public transport. Public transport routes, costs and timetables need to be set to meet the
needs of people traveling to and from jobs.
Finally, policy makers must review support for caring; those who do not undertake full-time paid work
because of their caring responsibilities for a child, elderly relative or person who is sick or disabled found
6
it very difficult to survive. Their roles benefit wider society enormously , yet the systems of financial support
available to them do not enable them to achieve a sustainable livelihood.

Acknowledgements
The staff of Oxfam’s partner organisations in Splott and Riverside carried out this research: Splotlands Credit Union and South
Riverside Community Development Centre. Grateful thanks are due to Caroline Hardy, June Johnson and Allan Herbert, Mashmooma
Din, Pat Gregory for their enthusiasm and commitment to conducting the interviews, and most especially to all those who gave their
time as participants in the study.

This summary report of the research was written by Alan Bull, Glenn Brooks and Sue Smith of Oxfam GB and printed by Oxfam GB

For further details and copies of the report contact:


UK Poverty Programme, Oxfam Cymru, Market Buildings, 5-7 St Mary Street, Cardiff, CF10 1AT
Tel: 029 2080 3293. Email: ukpoverty@oxfam.org.uk
www.oxfam.org.uk/uk

3. In The Red: Debt & Mental Health. MIND May 2008


4. Women and Poverty - Experiences, empowerment and engagement, Women’s Budget Group. JRF July 2008.
5. Communities in control: real people, real power – White Paper Secretary of State for Communities. July 2008. (See section 2.15)
6. Valuing Carers – calculating the value of unpaid care. Carers UK, ACE National and The University of Leeds September 2007

Be Humankindh

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi