Sociology Summer Work 2020 (Year 1)

Poverty, childhood and educational achievementWelcome to Sociology at Long Road.

Over the summer the department would like you to do the 5 activities below. Please write or type your answers out, if handwritten please produce this neatly on lined, hole-punched paper and bring this work to your first Sociology lesson at the start of the new term.

Introduction

A central topic you will study in your first year is the sociology of education and within this area you will look at how different social groups (the different classes, ethnicities and genders) experience the education system and perform in it. You will discover that of these, social class differences, are by far the most significant. Despite great improvements in the educational level of the nation as a whole, particularly since the Second World War, social class differences continue. Children from middle and upper class backgrounds tend to have very different educational experiences and achievements compared to their working class counterparts. They do better at GCSE, stay longer in full time education and take the great majority of university places. A number of sociological theories have been developed to explain these differences and we will look at just one of these here – Material deprivation. This term refers to poverty and the lack of material necessities such as adequate housing and income.

Activity 1: The experience of poverty and its impact on education

Watch the documentary ‘Growing up poor – Britain’s breadline kids’ (Dec 2019) from the All 4 Website https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/on-demand/68553-001

Take notes on the experiences of the children featured and the reasons that explain their situation. You may find it easier to fill out the grid on the next page of these notes while you are watching the clips. Print it off first

Activity 2: The experience of poverty and its impact on education

Answer the following questions using full sentences on the documentary. Write out your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

1. In 2019 how many children were living in poverty in the UK?2. What proportion of all children in the UK does this account for?3. Identify the main factors that led to Courtney and her family experiencing poverty.4. What is the main reason why people who are in employment may still experience poverty in

places like Cambridge?5. Identify 3 material factors that explain why Danielle didn’t do very well in her GCSE’s.6. What is the main reason for Rose’s poverty?7. What proportion of families in the UK get into debt to pay for funerals?8. According to the Resolution Foundation, what will happen to child poverty in the UK over the

next 3 years if government policy does not change?9. What impact is the coronavirus pandemic likely to have on levels of child poverty? Why?

Reasons why these children are living in poverty

Effects of poverty on the children’s lives

Courtney(Cambridge)

Danielle(Sudbury)

Rose(Morecombe)

Activity 3 Dramatized poverty

In sociology lessons we will often use clips from dramatic film as well as documentaries to illustrate theories and concepts.

Watch this dramatization of the experience of poverty from the film ‘I Daniel Blake’ directed by Ken Loach and then watch the debate between the director and a member of the previous Conservative government, Kwasi Kwarteng on Channel 4 News.

Briefly summarise using full sentences the debate and say whose arguments you find most convincing and why. (Approximately half a side)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_n7o30Ra60

Food bank scene I Daniel Blake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V7Iaycp5IU

Ken loach v Kwasi Kwarteng

Activity 4 Universal credit

Both the documentary and the drama focus in part on the failings and inadequacies of our social security or welfare benefits system. This has gone under a great deal of upheaval in the last few years with the introduction of Universal Credit.

Read the article below about Universal credit from the BBC and answer the following questions using full sentences.

1. When was Universal credit introduced and by which government?2. Which benefits did it merge into one payment?3. Give the two main reasons it was introduced4. How many people were claiming it in October 2019 and what proportion of these were in

employment?5. Outline 3 of its biggest problems according to its critics

What is universal credit - and what is the problem?By Rachel Schraer BBC Reality Check22 January 2020

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Labour leadership hopeful Lisa Nandy has said the principle of universal credit - the major reform to simplify the benefits system - was "the right one", but criticised cuts and a lack of support for claimants.

Universal credit was introduced by the Conservative-led coalition government in 2010, but has proved controversial almost from the beginning.

So what is universal credit?Universal credit is a benefit for working-age people, replacing six benefits and merging them into one payment:

income support income-based jobseeker's allowance income-related employment and support allowance housing benefit child tax credit working tax credit

It was designed to make claiming benefits simpler.A single universal credit payment is paid directly into claimants' bank accounts to cover the benefits for which they are eligible.Claimants then have to pay costs such as rent out of their universal credit payment - though there is a provision for people who are in rent arrears or have difficulty managing their money to have their rent paid directly to their landlord.The latest available figures show that there were 2.6 million universal credit claimants as of October 2019. Just over a third of claimants were in employment.

How does it work?The idea of universal credit is that it can be claimed whether you are in or out of work.There's no limit to the number of hours you can work per week if you receive it, but your payment reduces gradually as you earn more.It is designed to mean that no-one faces a situation where they would be better off claiming

benefits than working.Under the old system many faced a "cliff edge", where people on a low income would lose a big chunk of their benefits in one go as soon as they started working more than 16 hours.In the new system, benefit payments are reduced at a consistent rate as income and earnings increase - for every extra £1 you earn after tax, you will lose 63p in benefits.How much you can receive in universal credit payments in the first place depends on things like whether you have children and if you qualify for housing or disability payments.Payments are then reduced from this maximum amount the more you earn - although each household can earn a certain amount, called a work allowance, before they lose anything.

What are the concerns?Cuts to universal credit since it was announced have made the overall system significantly less generous.For example, the work allowance has been cut so people can earn a smaller amount of money before their benefit payments start to reduce.Low pay charity the Resolution Foundation warned that these kind of cuts may weaken the benefit's main purpose - to make sure people always feel it's worthwhile to work more hours.There have also been concerns over how long new claimants have to wait before receiving the benefit.Universal credit is paid in arrears. For example, if you sign on on 1 January, you'll receive your first payment on 5 February, based on what you earned in the previous month.So four weeks of earnings are assessed, plus a further week to process the payment.Those who don't have enough money saved to wait 35 days from claim to payment can get an advance on their first instalment of the benefit. But this is treated as a loan that is then taken off future benefits payments for the following year.The fact that it is assessed monthly has also proved difficult for some people who are paid weekly and whose pay fluctuates throughout the month.

Why some people on universal credit struggle to budget monthlyIn a written statement to Parliament, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said. "we provide alternative payment arrangements such as more frequent payment options and managed payments to landlords."

Will some people lose money?

Transferring onto universal credit from the old system will mean a loss of at least £1,000 a year for 1.9 million adults, and a gain of at least £1,000 a year for 1.6 million adults, according to an April 2019 report by independent think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies.Those with the lowest incomes stand to lose the most.The government has set aside £3bn in total to ease this process, designed to ensure that no-one moving from the old to the new system will lose out initially.But new claimants won't benefit from the protection and if people's circumstances change or if they come off benefits and then go back on them, they will lose this transitional protection.Think tank the Resolution Foundation in 2017 said that, "the long list of conditions that are deemed to reflect a change in circumstance, bringing such support to an end, is likely to mean relatively short durations of protection".The independent Office for Budget Responsibility said in 2018 that around 400,000 claimants would receive the protection.

Activity 5: Curious about sociology?

Select at least one of these super curricular activities, these will help you to gain a broader understanding of sociology.

Book Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones   Book Privilege: The making of an adolescent Elite at St Pauls school by Shamus

Rahman Khan Book A Glasgow Gang Observed by James Patrick Book Any other sociology book Podcast/ Radio Thinking Allowed https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qy05

(Listen to at least 2 programmes) Social Media (Twitter) @BrowneKen (If you choose this you should follow for a

minimum of two weeks) TV documentary 13th (on Netflix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IXQbXPO3I Article from Sociology Review ‘Educational Policy and Class inequality’ (available with

summer work) Poetry George the poet - Gangland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSEWuechVZ0

Along with this listen to at least 1 more of George’s podcasts

Task- Write a summary of the book, article, film, podcast etc and explain what you have learnt from it

These are the textbooks we will be

using