Dismay at

growing poverty
A REPORT highlighting a sharply widening gap between the rich and poor has been greeted with dismay by the ecumenical pressure group Chord) Action on Poverty (CAP).
National co-ordinator Paul Goggins said the news that the number living in poverty had more than doubled in the last decade confirmed that the 1980s was "a decade of despair for the poor."
The Government report, Households Below Average Incomes, published last week, said that the number of individuals living in poverty, defined as those with incomes less than half the national average, had risen from 5 million in 1979 to 12 million ten year later.
The survey which Mr Goggins described as "the nearest we ever get to poverty statistics" also revealed that, despite average incomes increasing by 30 per cent over the decade, earnings of the bottom 10 per cent had fallen.
"There is no doubt that in recent years the majority of people have experienced an increase in their incomes, but the poorest have fallen further behind," said Mr Goggins.