The TUC will challenge the media to stop discriminating against people on low incomes by portraying them as 'scroungers' and 'benefits cheats', at the TUC's annual poverty conference in London today (Friday).
The conference Challenging Povertyism - held on World Poverty Day - will tackle the negative way people on lower incomes are stereotyped by the media, and challenge how the Government communicates with people living in poverty.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'All too often we see tabloid headlines slating people living in poverty as 'benefits cheats'.
'Popular television programmes like 'Shameless' and 'Wife Swap' portray people on low incomes as 'scroungers' and second class citizens, worthy of ridicule.
'But poverty is not a laughing matter. Nearly four million children in the UK - one in three children - are growing up in poverty, and we have one of the worst child poverty records in the industrialised world.
'Contrary to media stereotypes, people on low incomes are not all cheating the benefits system. More than half of children living in poverty have parents in work, but many are caught up in a cycle of low paid insecure jobs.
'The majority of people on low incomes want decent work but are struggling, particularly in the current economic climate.
'The UK has one of the lowest levels of social mobility in the developed world. Negative portrayals of people on low incomes in the media as lazy, feckless, scrounging on the dole and somehow worth less than the rest of society do nothing to help social cohesion.'
The conference will also see the launch of a new report by the UK Coalition Against Poverty (UKCAP) 'Communicating Poverty'. The report discusses how ideas, policies and proposals to tackle poverty could be communicated more effectively to those living in poverty.
It is compiled from workshops with people who have direct experience of poverty themselves; how they talk about poverty, and their views about how service providers, politicians, campaigners and the media can
communicate about poverty better.
UKCAP National Coordinator Eileen Devaney said: 'Today UKCAP is launching a ground breaking report on people's perceptions of poverty in the UK.
'The findings within this report not only highlight the isolation and frustration people experiencing poverty feel, but also prove that many people in poverty want to be involved in the work to end poverty.
'The report contains many examples of community-based initiatives that actively promote inclusion and challenge traditional stereotypes.
'More effective communications are needed to build greater support amongst the general public for efforts to reduce poverty and inequality - the findings from this report will lay the foundations for building those communications.
'The findings will also be of interest to those working on anti-poverty policies, delivering services which are used by those living in poverty, or involved in communicating messages about poverty.'
