The Poverty Truth Movement: Fostering Communities of Care and Solidarity, a Participative Action Research Project

In 2018, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, visited
the UK on a fact-finding operation to establish the impact of a decade of austerity cuts to the
British welfare state. Drawing on interview data, testimonies and reports from charitable and
third sector organisations, and both qualitative and quantitative social scientific data, Alston
reported that one fifth of the UK population (14 million people) were living in poverty, with 1.5
million British citizens currently experiencing destitution. According to the Institute and Faculty of
Actuaries (2019), life expectancy has fallen by six months for the first time since official longevity
reports began. The Covid-19 pandemic has further exacerbated poverty in the UK, with severe
economic impacts, and higher death rates concentrated in those regions and communities already
most impacted by austerity cuts. For example, data from the British Medical Journal reveals that
people from poor neighbourhoods are twice as likely to die from the virus (BMJ, 2020).