Caroline: stop punishing the poor

She joined Russell Brand, Owen Jones, Mark Steel and others in calling on the government to end its policies of austerity.

Caroline told the crowds: “We have a message for the government. It wasn't the poor who caused the economic crisis. It wasn't people on Jobseeker's Allowance who brought down the banks. It wasn't people with disabilities who wasted billions speculating on risky financial markets. So that's why we're here to say: stop punishing the poor."

You can watch her speech here.

• When all austerity measures are taken into account, including cuts to public services and changes to taxes and welfare, the poorest tenth of the population are by far the hardest hit, seeing a 38 per cent decrease in their net income over the period 2010-15. For more information please see Oxfam’s The True Cost of Austerity and Inequality report.

• Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty have calculated that 20,247,042 meals were given to people in food poverty in 2013/14 by the three main food aid providers. This is a 54 percent increase on 2012/13. For further information, please see Oxfam’s report Below the Breadline: The Relentless Rise of Food Poverty in Britain

 

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