GET FAIR, end poverty, PRESS RELEASE AND PROPOSED PROGRAMME

This new coalition has an impressive list of 45 organisations already signed up to the campaign including Help the Aged, Inclusion Scotland, Disability Alliance, Mind, Muslim Council of Britain, One Parent Families, Oxfam UK Poverty Programme, Refugee Action, Refugee Council and Save the Children. Everyone in the coalition is committed to challenging poverty and lobbying government to commit to zero poverty 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. Recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that ‘the public is a long way from supporting an anti-UK poverty agenda. They are not aware of the problem and do not believe that it is a legitimate issue’.

The campaign is calling on all political parties to commit to concrete measures to ensure decent, adequate incomes, fair access to services, affordable homes and decent neighbourhoods. For young and old, for those who are disabled or not and for those who are single or have families. The campaign will run over the next year to ensure priority is given to tackling poverty in all its forms.

Britain: richer – but not fairer
The UK is the fifth richest country on the planet – yet the gap between rich and poor continues to grow.
 32% of children in the UK live in poverty – half in working families;
 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;
 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;
 21% of older people in the UK live below the poverty line.

The Get Fair campaign draws on the fundamental principles of equality, dignity and respect for everyone living in the UK, through all stages of life, and calls for a decent, adequate income; the right not to be marginalized or excluded from society and equal opportunities and fair access to services, Neighbourhoods that secure health and wellbeing

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 1pm - 3pm
 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
 Co-branded events, campaign actions and media stunts with partner organisations throughout year
 Regular bulletins and e-actions for individual campaigners

For further information on how you can help Get Fair, or to register for updates about the campaign, visit: www.getfair.org.uk  or e-mail info@getfair.org.uk