Get Fair

Get Fair, end poverty

Get Fair is a campaign coalition of over 50 NGO's and faith groups aiming to eradicate poverty in the UK by 2020.

Why Get Fair?
Get Fair is not Make Poverty History UK. It is not aiming to get millions of people wearing wrist bands, or fill Edinburgh, Birmingham or Westminster with 150,000 banner-waving activists, and it doesn't have Bob Geldof in the wings to organise another Hyde Park extravaganza.

The organisations and supporters of Get Fair want a just and fair society, free from poverty in all its forms. The campaign wants to challenge poverty in the UK and positively change public attitudes.

Get Fair is calling on all political parties to commit to concrete measures to ensure


 * An income that meets minimum living standard
 * Affordable housing and decent neighbourhoods
 * Fair access to services, without discrimination

Get Fair stats on poverty

 * 30% of children in the UK live in poverty - half in working families
 * 23% of pensioners in the UK live below the poverty line
 * 40% of part-time workers in the UK - mostly women - earn less than £6.50 an hour
 * 43% of all UK adults are worried about their lack of money
 * 66% of the public think asylum seekers should be allowed to work - but they are not
 * 40% of black and minority ethnic people are living in poverty
 * 30% of disabled adults live in poverty - double the rate for non-disabled adults
 * 14% of homeless households have been in temporary housing for two years or more
 * 20% of women are living in poverty

Timetable of events
The campaign will focus on activity in the run up to the next General Election, which will take place in 2009-10. This approach will achieve maximum profile and engagement with supporters, civil society groups and the wider public, and include
 * September 08 – Spotlight on Poverty: Media launch of campaign nationally and opening of dialogue with MPs and party manifestos locally
 * 4 October 08 – Keep the Promise, End Child Poverty rally in Trafalgar Square, London
 * February 09 – Action Week: ‘Poverty Monologues’ telling the real life stories of how poverty impacts on the lives of people across UK
 * Spring 2009 – Lobby and rally event (provisional) supplemented by on-going activities

Quotes

 * "The UK is becoming richer but not fairer, with one in five people now living in poverty in the world's 5th richest country." Vanessa Stanislas, Get Fair Vice-Chair and Chief Executive of the Disability Alliance
 * "It is completely unacceptable that more than 13 million people live in poverty in the UK." Kate Wareing, Oxfam's Director for UK poverty

Related topics

 * Poverty
 * Live 8 - Making Poverty History?