Poverty and BME Mental Health

Recession poverty risk for BME Women

Ethnic minority women are amongst the poorest and most socially excluded people in the UK, and may suffer most in the recession, according to a new report by Fawcett and Oxfam.

Poverty Pathways, published as part of Seeing Double, Fawcett's campaign on ethnic minority women, shows how the recession is on course to present two major risks if current policy approaches do not adapt:

• Ethnic minority women living in poverty will be locked into their destitution for the foreseeable future;

• Even more ethnic minority women will be made vulnerable to poverty.

The report outlines 7 key policy traps and the steps needed to get things right. It looks at household dynamics, moving beyond paid employment as a panacea for poverty, and how women's lives change over their lifetimes. It shows how ethnic minority women need to be brought back into the policy picture if their poverty is to be addressed.

The full report is available from Fawcett

Posted on 16 July 2009