Introduction

The effects of poverty are material, physical and also increasingly recognised to be psychosocial (Walker and Chase, 2013; Walker, 2014; Mills, 2017). Yet poverty propaganda works to present those experiencing poverty – particularly those claiming out-of-work benefits – as living comfortably. The comparison between the ease and comfort of life on out-of-work benefits and the hardships of a life in paid work is frequently used to evoke prejudice towards ‘welfare’ claimants and engender feelings about unfairness in the system of social support. In the following chapter we will look at some of the difficulties of undertaking low-paid, insecure work and how this adds to the troubles of poverty, but in this chapter we look more closely at the experience of living with poverty and prioritise the accounts of people who have experienced the condition.

Close-up, qualitative, everyday accounts of poverty tend to be much more mundane than the popular and political narratives described in the previous chapter. Accounts of life from those who have experienced poverty also tend to be remarkably consistent. Research shows that those in poverty experience multiple hardships and disadvantages (Hooper et al, 2007; Ridge, 2009; Shildrick et al, 2012; Gordon et al, 2013; Shildrick and MacDonald, 2013; Cooper et al, 2014; Chase and Walker, 2015a, 2015b) and that resilience, fortitude and planning and negotiation are needed to manage day-today living on a low income.