The Proximity Problem

One reason many of us - Christians included - have little understanding of the lives of those in poverty is because of “proximity”, or more specifically the lack of it. In 'The Myth of the Undeserving Poor', Martin Charlesworth writes:

“Sometimes Christians in countries such as Britain have a proximity problem when it comes to poverty. We need to be close enough relationally or physically to be in touch with the reality of poverty on a regular basis. Without proximity we are prone to prejudice.” *

Serving regularly at my church's foodbank has given me a window on a world less familiar to me. I have never had to worry about my next meal, the roof over my head, or paying a fuel bill. These worries are all too familiar to many of those I now meet.

Perhaps the biggest assumption we can make is that, with our welfare state, no one needs to be in poverty in Britain today. Being in close proximity to people has brought home to me how unfounded this assumption is.

It is easy to have instinctive reactions when someone shares something of their circumstances with you. But challenged by the realities, here are a few things I have been learning recently.

1. Aren’t foodbanks an easy option?

I doubt that a foodbank is ever the first port of call for anyone. There is more to visiting a food bank than the prospect of free food. I’ve met parents with a foodbank voucher issued weeks before, but so reluctant to use the voucher that they have gone hungry while feeding their children first. They came to us finally at the point of desperation. People I have met have felt nervous, embarrassed and even ashamed that their circumstances have brought them to this place of dependence.

We can’t assume people find visiting a food bank easy.

2. Don’t people have friends or families to help in a crisis?

We have seen the Covid lockdown bring out the best of many people rallying to the needs of others; a new sense of neighbourliness and community. In a crisis some people are helped by family or friends. This is good, but such generosity has limits. Few family members or friends can provide support for the more significant and unexpected crises, such as a loss of job or home. Community or family ties are not always strong enough even to help over a short period. I have met people whose parents are just not present to help, people whose close relatives are estranged, or where the relatives are struggling themselves, are sick, or have no spare resources.

We can’t assume people have these informal sources of support around them.

3. Aren’t there benefits available?

It is a privilege to live in a society where help is available. The founding of the welfare state meant the creation of a safety net (however patchy in places!), and even before that there were often other means - churches, trades unions, friendly societies, etc - to give crisis support. But the reality is that benefits are often delayed, whether by bureaucracy or by design (such as the five-week wait for Universal Credit, which was built in intentionally to ‘mimic work’). In recent times some benefits have even been changed, others reduced or differently assessed. Such changes, in a complex and sometimes unfair system are not necessarily wrong, but often they are not handled in a way to protect those facing the greatest need.

Interestingly, when Universal Credit (UC) was increased to address increased hardship during the Covid crisis, the temporary nature of that uplift was not always fully understood by the beneficiaries. One week at our foodbank, I spoke to two women, in different circumstances, for whom the reduction in UC had come as a complete shock; for whatever reason neither had been aware of the earlier rise. I have also come to understand that it is naive to think, where the pressures just to meet basic needs are overwhelming, that people have the time and energy to follow the changing machinations of the benefits system, and the politics that surrounds it. For the women I spoke to, that cut would have meant anywhere between a 13% and 21% drop in income overnight**.

We can’t assume that our benefit system is easy to navigate, consistent or always fair.

4. Don’t people with assets have money or savings to cope?

My experience (especially through Covid) has highlighted the fact that, while many people have assets – a house or a car - if they suddenly lose a job, they do not necessarily have access to money for living. Our foodbank has seen people who have lost businesses or well-paid work but have not had the short-term resources to cope. These are often people who never experienced poverty before; often self-employed people losing all their work due to lockdown. While home-ownership, for example, may not count against people eventually receiving benefits, coming to a point of needing to claim those benefits is a whole new experience for some people. I’ve spoken to people whose only previous connection with a foodbank before has been donating food in a supermarket bin! We pray for people to return to work as soon as possible but a further dimension that we are seeing is the impact of long-Covid and the potential inability of some we have met to be able to return to employment at all.

As with assets, so the assumption is made that most people have savings. I have reflected that perhaps this is more an assumption of those brought up in earlier times. Certainly, over the last generation the way most people live has changed significantly. The ready use of credit has become a way of life and personal debt levels have soared. Perhaps now only a minority of people have significant savings to tide them over in any unexpected crisis, especially the loss of employment. Added to this, the rising cost of living is beginning to tip more people over the edge, not knowing how to pay rising bills, or budget out of debt when a crisis comes.

We can’t assume people have access to ready money in a crisis.

Proximity is the problem, but it’s also a significant part of the solution; indeed Jesus models a life of deliberately drawing near to those in need. Proximity has been one of the greatest gifts of volunteering, and this closeness to people in need is teaching me to question my initial judgments and heed James 2:19 more; being "quick to listen and slow to speak".

How could you intentionally make yourself closer to those in need this year, and have more meaningful encounters with those facing the reality of poverty?

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Written by Richard Wilson

* Martin Charlesworth & Natalie Williams, ‘The Myth of the Undeserving Poor’ (Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd, 2014), p. 97
** Statistics cited by Keep the Lifeline - The Trussell Trust