Giving Compass' Take:

• Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation highlights growing destitution in the U.K. and offers policy solutions that government can take to reverse the trend.

• How can philanthropy help guide policy to reduce destitution? 

• Learn about the struggles of working-class students in the U.K.

Over 1.5 million people experienced destitution in the UK at some point during 2017. This means that they could not afford to buy the bare essentials that we all need to eat, stay warm and dry, and keep clean. This research examines why this is happening in our society and what we can do to rectify it.

Key Findings:

  • 1,550,000 people, including 365,000 children, experienced destitution in the UK over the course of 2017.
  • Destitution typically happens when people have been trapped in sustained poverty and long-term hardship.
  • People are generally pushed from severe poverty into absolute destitution by a combination of factors: debt, benefit and health problems. Extremely low levels of benefits, especially for younger people, or no eligibility for benefits, for some migrants, also drive people into destitution.
  • Single men under 35 years old are at highest risk of destitution. Three-quarters of those in destitution were born in the UK.
  • Almost all people experiencing destitution live in rented, temporary or shared accommodation. Homeowners and older people rarely experience destitution. The lack of low-cost rented housing and gaps between rent and housing benefit levels push people over the brink.
  • Destitution is clustered in major northern cities and some London Boroughs. Rates are low in the prosperous parts of southern England.
  • Levels of destitution have declined by around 25% between 2015 and 2017, and benefit sanctions changes appear to be the most significant factor behind this.
  • The high sanction rate within the Universal Credit system could lead to an increase in levels of destitution in the future.