Homelessness

Homelessness in the UK

 

 

 

 

In recent years, homelessness has increased in the United Kingdom which can have an effect on the country. It is believed that homelessness has a major impact globally and its serious situation can lead to future crimes being committed such as kidnapping, murder, robbery and mugging in order to have money. This essay will explore the world of homelessness and discover the reasons, causes and then make suggestions about how to reduce the number of homeless people.


Most people think that of homelessness as not having a home, however, you can be homeless if you are staying with a friend or living in a squat(Shelter, 2014). Other example for homelessness include staying in a hostel or night shelter, living in very over crowded conditions, being at risk of abuse in the home and living in poor conditions which can effect health(ibid).



Shelter (2014) argue that people can become homeless due to different reasons affecting their lives. An individual can be affected by homelessness if they are leaving care or prison, pregnant and with  no where to stay, responsible for children, living on benefits or a law income or an asylum seeker or refugee.


 Shelter House (2007) Look at solutions to prevent homelessness and list them under three components: housing, money and support services. In regards to housing, Shelter House state that it must be affordable and adequate. A homeless person may need to relocate to a more affordable area. When looking at money, the individual needs to ensure they are working or have a pension or government help. Budgeting will also help to control their spending. Support services such as health, mental health and addictions are just an important as their state of well being to be cared for. Therefore, the UK government should provide houses to prevent homeless people and supply to them services support and finical support. However, according to Windy Wilson(2013) providing accommodation for homeless people is not the responsibility of the government. Citizens have to work and prevent themselves form being homeless, interestingly, she added that unless they are a couple with children that would be their responsibility.

 

In conclusion, it can be seen that there are many reasons to be homeless such as, leaving care or prison. It might be one of the best remediation is to provide support services which will help them to overcome some of their issues. It would be a great idea if the government would build a hostel for these people who are suffering from homelessness and lack of money and food, in order to reduce the percentage of homelessness in the United Kingdom.


References:-

Shelter (2014) What is homelessness. Available at: < http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/homelessness/homelessness_-_an_introduction/what_is_homelessness > Accessed at: (20th March 2014).


Shelter House (2007) Solutions, the Solutions. Available at: < http://www.shelterhouse.on.ca/article/solutions-146.asp > Accessed at: (20th March 2014).

Windy Wilson (2013) Homelessness in England. Available at: < http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CFsQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parliament.uk%2Fbriefing-papers%2Fsn01164.pdf&ei=2O0qU76LA86R0QX0-oD4Dw&usg=AFQjCNEDkq5ulRC4NzIgt08M2Cnj5JEKXA&sig2=bpvelYqrThoIAJ8R--N0ew > Accessed at: < (20th March 2014).

Poverty

Poverty in the UK 

Poverty is one of the most serious issues all around the world which some people and governments are suffering from. Although the UK governments provide benefits for some citizens, it is believed that there are people in the UK who are suffering from a poor quality of life. The Oxford Dictionary (2014) describes poverty as "the state of being extremely poor". Even though the UK is perceived to be a rich country, there are still citizens who live in poverty due to numerous factors. This essay will consider generally a life of poverty in the UK, looking at the causes of poverty and offering some solutions. 

When looking at someone in poverty, it is important to look at the reasons why they may be living in this way. Nowadays, education is important in society, and those less educated will find it harder to get jobs which may cause them to live in poverty. It is difficult for the government and employers to offer employment opportunities to those who have little, or no, education and qualifications.  However, some people that are not educated are not to blame as their circumstances may prevent them from getting a good education. For instance, a person who's parents have passed away may have to be responsible for their siblings and may need to get work to be able to feed them and survive. Although this shows that they are able to get a job, it also means that the job they get will be very poorly paid. Due to this, they could become in debt and find it difficult to support themselves.

The BBC (2014) defines poverty in three ways; absolute poverty, relative poverty and social exclusion. Absolute poverty describes the people that have nothing at all, relative poverty describes the citizens that have less money than the UK average and social exclusion describes the people who are looked down on by society because of the area they live in might be affected by high unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, crime and poor housing.

Social exclusion highlights many of the reasons that people may suffer from poverty.  Although education can affect poverty, it is not the only reason, The person may live in an area that has poor housing and be influenced by drugs and gambling. These habits will cause them to spend the little money they have and stops them paying for food or bills which causes them to fall into debt. Another reason that someone may fall into poverty is the high living expenses in the UK. A citizen could have a good job but may lose it because of the economy. If they lose their job, then they will struggle to pay their mortgage payments. A burden that they face is the high interest rates that they have to pay.

In conclusion, it is believed that citizens have to encourage themselves in order to be educated to protect themselves from a poor life. They need to find a better balance if their lifestyle prevents them from studying full time. It is recommended that people avoid loans and mortgages and depend on what they have because interest is not affordable and can be a complicated system to deal with.

References

BBC (2014) Modren Studies, Definition of Poverty. Available at: < http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/int/ms/health/wealth/def_of_poverty/definitions.shtml > Accessed at (19th March 2014).

Oxford Dictionary (2014) Definition of Poverty in English. Available at: < http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/poverty > Accessed at: (19th March 2014).

Welfare life

Welfare Life in the UK 

People fight to live and to feed themselves and their families in order to live a welfare life. It is believed that some people in the UK cannot afford to work due to various reasons such as being retired, disabled people and pregnant women. Globally,  the UK is known for providing benefits to those people who could not work and often make excuses which the UK accepts. The UK  is often considered as the welfare state.  The Welfare State is "A system whereby the state undertakes to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial or social need, by means of grants, pensions, and other benefits."(Oxford Dictionary 2014). This essay will highlight the most common factors when looking at the Welfare State in the UK, looking at advantages and disadvantages of having this system.

In order for benefits to be paid, the money must come from somewhere. All employees in the UK are required to pay national insurance from their salary. They also need to pay council tax which goes towards the police service and road repairs. 

The Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for the benefit system in the UK. There are many benefits that are available, depending on your circumstances. A pension is one example of a benefit and is paid to people once they reach retirement age. According to Gov.uk (2014) the retirement age is 65 for women and 68 for men. However, the government has just recently increased the retirement age because they argue that people are living longer and there is a lot of money being spent on them. They believe that people are physically able to work for longer. The government would want to spend less money on pension by setting up new rules and law. 

Gov.uk (2014) also state that "Default retirement age (formerly 65) has been phased out - most people can now work for as long as they want to." The previous law was beneficial to the younger generation as it provided them with opportunities to gain employment. They could bring in a new perspective to the jobs that had been previously carried out by the older generation. However, if there was no default retirement age, these opportunities would not arise and the younger generation would remain unemployed. 

The NHS refers to the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It is funded by the UK taxpayers and allows all UK citizens to be treated for free. However, this is not a fair system. Although the NHS is seen as being free, it is actually being paid for by british taxpayers. They are paying for foreign visitors to be treated for free, this is highly unfair. The idea of the UK providing a blanket system needs to be modified as it is placing pressure on the NHS as many people visit doctors for very minor illnesses, such as colds, because they know that they do not have to pay.

According to the NHS (2013) it is the largest publicly funded medical service in the world. Since it was founded in 1948, it has been committed to providing good healthcare to all citizens, regardless of their wealth. The NHS wanted to make sure that the poorer members of society still had access to medical treatment. 

Another example of benefits is maternity leave. A pregnant lady can have up to a year away from work when she is pregnant. NHS Choice (2014) define maternity leave as 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave and 26 weeks of additional maternity leave. Although this is seen as a government payout, it needs to be remembered that pregnant women have already paid national insurance tax in their working life. Other forms of help available to pregnant women include healthy start, tax credits, statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance and the sure start maternity grant.

The UK provides many benefits that aids a variety of people depending on their circumstances, whether it is due to unemployment or retirement. Although it seems that this is free, it is the taxpayer that is funding this and the money is distributed by the government to those most in need. The retirement  age has increased which affects the youth generation and leads to youth unemployment. The NHS is a perfect system to treat people for free. Nevertheless, all people have access even if they do not pay for it. It is recommended that the government modifies the retirement age and keeps it as it was before, it should also provide the NHS system to those that pay for it, the taxpayer.

References

Gov.UK (2014) Retirement age. Available at: < https://www.gov.uk/retirement-age > Accessed at (18th March 2014).

NHS (2013) The History of the NHS in England, The NHS is Born. Available at: < http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/nhshistory/Pages/NHShistory1948.aspx > Accessed at: (18th March 2014).

NHS Choices (2014) Pregnancy and Baby, Maternity and Paternity Benefits and Leave. Available at: < http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/maternity-paternity-leave-benefits.aspx#close > Accessed at: (18th March 2014).

Oxford Dictionary (2014) Definition of Welfare State in English:, Welfare State. Available at: < http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/welfare-state > Accessed at: (18th March 2014).

Youth unemployment

Youth unemployment in the UK

Young people have suffered for a long period of time in finding jobs. This problem has spread widely in the UK and many young people are affected by the lack of jobs. According to the BBC (2014), numerous young unemployed people are feeling that they have no purposes or reasons to stay alive and think about suicide. It is believed that the lack of jobs may cause crimes and disruption in the country. This essay will consider the causes, effects and solutions of unemployment.

Unemployment is high amongst the youth in the UK and this often leads to them committing crimes. It is stated that young unemployed people are likely to commit crimes due to unawareness of the consequences. The youth have much more free time but are unaware of how to use it. Their ages also play a major role in the way that they think about life.  The BBC (2014) reports that the UK has a high number of unemployed people around 75,000, however, it is lowest level since 2009 according to the Office for National Statistics(ibid). There are many crimes that are associated with unemployment. Unemployed people might get depressed and start taking drugs. Their depression could get worse and cause them to commit suicide. The BBC (2014) said that ' Unemployed young people  there were more than twice as likely as their peers to hand been prescribe anti-depressed.

On the other hand, there are many effects on unemployed people due to having no jobs. Unemployment does have a serious effect on them and may lead to panic attacks. For instance, a man who is unemployed may become depressed because of worrying about money and due to drug use. If he is unemployed for a long time, he may start to steal from his partner in order to pay for drugs which could make him anxious and start becoming paranoid. This demonstrates how mental health can also be affected by unemployment. 

The best remedy to deal with unemployment would be to provide jobs with slightly lower salaries. this would be a good way for the long term unemployed to get back into a working environment. This would also be good for the country as more tax would be paid and less benefits would be received. The government also see a problem with immigrants from EU countries, they should introduce an exchange programme where UK citizens can go and work there. This could be good for citizens who have not thought about this as an option. The jobs in EU countries may be better suited to their skills and provide them with a valuable opportunity to change their lives. Although EU citizens have a right to employment in the UK, other countries do not. The UK should introduce more stringent laws to reduce immigration so that UK citizens have more job opportunities. 

Further opportunities that could be created include work placements. The government could work with different companies to provide short term and long term work experience. This will help those with little experience to gain valuable skills that are required in the workplace. The government has already starter the Youth Contract which is helping some young people to gain employment.

In conclusion, unemployment amongst the youth is a serious issue in the UK which causes problems such as crimes. This may have effects on households due to related issues including drug use. The best remedy to reduce the number of unemployed people would be to have rules that prevent immigrants from taking the jobs of local people. However, local people should show that they are willing to take these jobs and not just complain about it.

References ;

Sellgren, K. (2014) Young people 'feel they have nothing to live for'. Available at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25559089> Accessed at: (17th March 2014).

The role of media

The role of the press

The media plays a major role in society. This might have an effect on some policies that govern states, policies that affect people, influence certain issues in some countries, provide exclusive news, revealing the truth, cover important events, reporting crimes and conspiracies. The media has numerous different ways and methods to spread news, this could be via newspapers, magazines, online newspapers, websites, television channels and radio. The function of the media should be to search about news that tells the truth, discover the truth and not to publish news articles that have fake information. Interestingly, not every single news article that is published is truthful and genuine, it could be fake for many different reasons. 

One example of how the media could lead to logistical change is Al-Jazera. Al-Jazera is an arabic news channel which has played important role politically in Arabs spring. It has covered the revolution in Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, and Syria. First of all, nobody could imagine what happened would actually happen in these countries. Globally, Al-Jazera  is one of the most famous news channels and covers vital news and serious issues such as, sports events, political events, and a wide range of events around the world.

 

Al-Jazera have covered live broadcasts and reports about what is happing now in Egypt. They have also showed the violence caused by the Egyptian government and how they have prevented the citizens from staging a revolution.  Egypt's government has also stopped Al-Jazera from broadcasting live revolutions and has banned Al-Jazera staff from interviewing citizens. This shows how the media could have an affect on state policies and does not always have the power to broadcast free speech. However, if the media does not influence people and does not have an effect on them and their countries,  why is Al-Jazera  suspended in Egypt? Due to this issue Al-Jazera has a strong reputation and it is believed that AL-Jazera is one of many factors that help Arabs spring to continue widely.  However, it is claimed that not all news which is published on Al-Jazrea channel is factual and true. This example shows that media can be restricted by local authorities and this could affect the level of truth that is published.

On the other hand, magazines and newspapers spread a variety of news including news on health care, sports, food and celebrities. It is considered that magazines in general focus on celebrity news in order to attract a larger audience. However, when news stories are fake, it can lead to celebrities taking the media source to court for publishing inaccurate information. An example of the media not being truthful is the phone hacking scandal that was caused by the News of the Word newspaper in the United Kingdom. They got stories about celebrities by hacking their phones, which is illegal.  The Guardian (2014) reports that a journalist hacked thousands of celebrity phones after he was given a list of their mobile numbers, Dan Evans pleaded guilty to "intercepting voice messages at the News of the World".

The media softly influences the public and can make them change their views. An example of this is Lady Diana's death. It is believed that Lady Diana passed away in a normal accident ,but some channels and newspapers argue with this and say that there was a conspiracy to kill her. Once the media analysed the death of Lady Diana, they made the audience believe that there was a conspiracy. Since her death, there have been many theories published in the news in order to attract a large audience. The media still publishes news stories about Lady Diana today, a recent news story published by BBC News (2014) said that she gave the News of the World newspaper a list of telephone numbers that belonged to the royal family. The media will always split the opinion of the nation when they publish news stories about Lady Diana.

To conclude, the media plays a major role in influencing people although this can be in a range of different ways. There are different methods of media that can reach a wide number of people including magazines and radio which still remain popular, even with the wide reach and responsiveness of the internet. The media however, can still be restricted in some countries such as Egypt which does not support the idea of freedom of the press. It is recommended that not all news articles published in the media should be believed because there are many untruths that are published.

References

BBC News (2014) Phone Hacking Trial: Princess Diana 'gave royal phone book to NoW' Available at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26557920> Accessed: (16th March 2014).

   

The Guardian (2014) News of the World Reporter hacked phones a thousand times, he tells court. Available at: <http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/27/news-world-reporter-hacked-phones-dan-evans-simon-cowell>  Accessed: (16th March2014).

European Union

The advantages and disadvantages of European Union

“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided”[i] The previously mentioned quotes are one of many quotes that show the importance of unity. Although being united has countless of benefits, one should not forget that “two captains can sink the ship”. In other words, there are numbers of disadvantages that unity can have.  A unity is a double-edged sword. For the sake of this essay, I would shade the light on the advantages and disadvantages of European Union.

The European Union is good for one’s country economy. By having a single currency, the stake brokers and other investors will not have to fear the fluctuations and the interest rate of their currency. By having a free trade zone, the 28 members of the union would be economically developed.

At one time of history, Greece had economically fallen behind. Suffice to say that Greece is a small, industrialized country, and if it wasn’t part of the union, it would be hard for them to get where they used to be. Fortunately, because they were part of the union, they were able to get financial help from other countries.

As for the disadvantages, taking into consideration the above mentioned example of Greece, how is it possible for a small productive country to keep up with a large productive country in the union, respectively? Since member countries cannot adopt political policies of its own, it would be difficult for Greece or any other small state to succeed competitively.

All in all, there are countless of advantages and disadvantages that EU has. Even if the misfortunes, by any chance, outnumbered the benefits, one should not be pessimist. It is always to wise to see the full half of a glass not the empty half of it.

should the govermnet legistate agaunist smacking children?

Smacking

Is the UK government correct to legislate against beating of children by parents?

It is believed that if government involve in families and their way to learn their children, it will impact on families negatively and  it claimed that government must not involve because how parents rebukes their children and it is up to the parents to do and set the satisfied punishment. 

Should the Walsh Assembly legislate against smacking?

It is claimed that smacking is not a strong punishment such as beating and slapping so there no reasons to stop smacking and the government should not stop it because it is kind of light punishment to learn and deal with children.

How much do the government rules depend on which society/country/culture a person lives in?

Culture, country and the society are made the rules in the countries and it has strong influence to the decision of governments, for example government in an arabic culture will not pay attention for smacking, hitting, beating and slapping children because it is normal act that we brought up with if we do any mistakes and if we behave badly. So these four aspects has effects on the rules strongly and change many decision due to many factors such as education, religion and tradition.