A social worker’s blueprint for creating a fair and equitable society

The cost-of-living crisis still looms large. Widening income inequality and increasing poverty are the great social evils of our time and are the root of so many of today's problems.

According to the new Forbes billionaire list, Elon Musk added $373.5billion dollars (or £279.3 billion) to his fortune in just one year. 

The Equality Trust points out this is the biggest ever increase in one year - Musk’s total worth is now the 22nd largest economy in the world, beating Belgium. 

Oxfam reports that global billionaire wealth increased by £1.5 trillion in 2024. In contrast, the median household disposable income in the UK for the year ending 2024 was £36,700, a 0.8 per cent increase on the previous year. 

However, chasing inward investment in search of growth will continue to make the rich richer and create low paid jobs for the masses, as it has done for at least 40 years. 

There needs to be a fairer distribution of income within organisations so that everyone gets a fair and proportionate return for their hard work. 

Extensive studies by the Equality Trust have found that people are becoming increasingly aware that the economy is a human-made system that can be changed,

According to a recent study by Christopher Hoy, of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank, people tend to dramatically underestimate wage inequalities. The study interviewed 9,000 people in eight countries. They grossly underestimated the ratio of chief executives’ pay in the larger corporations, banks and utilities when compared to the average pay of their employees, believing it to be 18 times higher. When told it could be as much as 269 times higher, surprisingly it was the far-right voters who altered their views about redistribution the most. 

Even in Japan with the lowest ratio of 59 times, people thought it was only eight times higher. 

There is surely a need to avoid excessive profiteering at the expense of customers, and share rewards fairly and proportionately among those on whose hard work these executives depend. 

With such endemic disparities ever-present, it is difficult to see how the Government can achieve its objectives whilst operating within the present system, when it is the system itself which needs changing. 

In April 2024 there were 4.5 million children being brought up in poverty, 70 per cent of whom had a parent in work. Although the removal of the two-child cap on child benefit will help it should never have been imposed in the first place as it is a child, not a parent benefit.

And although the provision of free school meals is to be welcomed, this will not reduce child poverty. 

The official definition of poverty is an income of less than 60 per cent of median household income. Food banks help low-income families but do not lift them out of poverty and may well add to their labelling, stigma and lack of self-worth.

In March 2023 there were 107,317 children in the care of a local authority in the UK – the highest number ever. In December 2023, 112,660 homeless households were living in temporary accommodation in England with an estimated 4,266 people sleeping rough. 

According to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government there were 634,453 empty houses in England in October 2018 with 8.4m people living in single person households.

A recent petition containing 70,000 signatures called upon the Government to raise the personal tax-free personal allowance from £12,570 to £20,000 per year. Although this would help a great number of people it would be a short-term quick fix.

How much better to fix it at 60 per cent of median household income (which according to the Office for National Statistics would currently be £20,700) so that it automatically increases each year and no one living in poverty ever has to pay income tax again. 

Britain has one of the lowest state pensions in the developed world with two million older people living in poverty. 

Older people account for approximately 70 per cent of the expenditure of the NHS. Raising the state pension to 60 per cent of median household income would lift all older people out of poverty, improving their quality of life and reducing demand upon the NHS.

According to a survey by The Times in 2025 there were on average 13,600 people a day in hospital awaiting social care. Social care needs to move from a “minding” to a “mending” service. Social work is under-valued and social workers misused.

Unless Government addresses widening income inequalities, the NHS will not keep pace with demand and will always be playing catch up. 

Both the NHS and social care are in crisis and in need of radical reform based upon a whole systems approach. This would liberate hardworking professionals from a constraining contract culture into an enabling leadership one. 

One cannot resolve whole-systems problems with component level solutions. Perhaps Government could do an income inequality and poverty audit across all its activities to ensure it is reducing and not increasing them 

Chris Perry is a social worker who has worked as a director of social services for South Glamorgan County Council, a non-executive director for Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust and was director of Age Concern, Hampshire