How the Other Half Live: what it’s like growing up below the poverty line
There are almost 4 million children living below the poverty line in the UK. What’s it like growing up in poverty in 21st century Britain?
Wednesday 29 July 2009
Made by the team behind Secret Millionaire, Channel 4’s ‘How the Other Half Live’ follows the story of two families, as a wealthy family decides to help a family living below the poverty line in the UK.
Each family hopes that their children will gain from the experience. The series raises important questions about how we respond to poverty in Britain.
In the first episode we meet Grace, nine, who lives in one of the wealthiest parts of the country with her mum, Christine, and dad, Ken, and her brother Charlie, thirteen.
They have a big house and several acres of land, including tennis courts. The family employs two cleaners and a team of gardeners. Ken comes from a deprived are of Glasgow and is now a very successful businessman. He wants his children to know that not everyone lives like they do.
Yolanda, ten, lives in a flat on a council estate with her mum and two sisters. She keeps her belongings in a cardboard box and a suitcase because her mum can’t afford to buy drawers.
Moesha, her eight-year-old sister sleeps on a mattress on the floor because her bed is broken. Sharon, Yolanda’s mum, budgets very carefully to make every penny count.
She gets upset that she cannot afford the basic things her children need. Sharon hopes that the experience of meeting Grace and her family will help encourage her children to work hard at school.
The families start writing letters to each other explaining their different lives. Ken and Christine then send a cheque for £2000 to Sharon, and she is overwhelmed. She pays off her electricity and gas just as she was about to be cut off.
Sharon also replaces her daughter’s bed and buys them new school uniforms. With another cheque she is able to pay off debts. Sharon also enrols in a college course. The other family offer to help her out with childcare so she can return to work.
“‘How the Other Half Live’ is a rare and shocking insight into the reality of families living in poverty today,” said Colette Marshall, Save the Children’s UK Director. “There are now 4 million children living in poverty in the UK. Their families, trapped by debt, struggle to afford even the most basic essentials like shoes and clothes for their children, yet many are unable to work because of the cost of childcare or the lack of jobs.
"Poverty in the UK is a hidden crisis: poor families are rarely able to talk openly and honestly about the conditions in which they live and are desperate to escape the situation. That is why this Channel 4 programme is so important,” Marshall continued.
The programme touches on issues that Save the Children is very familiar with. Earlier this year Save the Children and Family Action launched the Cash Crisis Grants scheme to help families struggling to get by. So far almost £60,000 has been disbursed to over 341 families in crisis, helping 699 children.
The largest number of grants has been to help purchase children’s clothes and other grants have helped people buy beds, cookers and other essential household items.
Donate to the UK Child Poverty Appeal or please call 0800 8148148.
Watch the first programme on Channel 4 on Thursday 30 July at 9pm.
Find out more
Find out more about our child poverty work in the UK.
Read our How the other half live briefing.
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