- ATD Fourth World

On 26 June, policymakers from local and central government, figures from the voluntary sector and academics came together for the launch of the Voices for a Change report in London. The publication of the report was the climax of an eighteen-month project in which eleven people with experience of poverty became researchers and interviewed thirty people living in poverty in order to look for solutions to the problem of poverty in the capital.

Given their experience, and with the project receiving support from the Child Poverty Action Group, the City Parochial Foundation and Oxfam’s UK Poverty Programme, the researchers were able to bring crucial insights to bear on the process of both analysing the results of their interviews and drawing conclusions from them.

The conclusions and recommendations of the report highlight a number of key areas. Firstly, poverty needs to be better understood, particularly by government services. It was found that services which are supposed to help and assist people all too frequently mistake and misunderstand poverty for laziness and apathy, which can lead to people not getting the support that they are entitled to.

Also emphasised by the researchers, and subsequently by the report itself, are the immeasurably positive consequences of believing and trusting in someone, and viewing them as having potential. This approach, more often seen in the voluntary and charitable sectors, is one that government services could learn from.

A further point is how, for many people, the restraints imposed by poverty make it difficult to simply get to the services and access them in the first place. The report thus calls for greater investment in public services as these are often spread thinly in the very areas that need them the most.

The final recommendation calls for the establishment of a fairer distribution of wealth by, for example, keeping benefit levels in line with the perpetually rising cost of living and simplifying the transition from receiving benefits to earning a working wage.

A four page summary and the full report (both pdf) are available below.