Paul Kissack: I hope we tackle poverty as an urgent moral responsibility

I hope the next Government turns back the rising tide of hardship, destitution and homelessness in Britain. Days before the election was called, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found seven million low-income families were going without essentials like food, adequate clothing or hot showers. A million children experienced destitution in 2022 – three times the number five years earlier – with all the damage that does to their health and education. Tackling poverty is an urgent moral responsibility, and a fiscal responsibility too. We cannot tolerate the costs it imposes on people’s lives and must reduce the avoidable costs it imposes on our shared public services. Right now, our social security system, which should protect us all when we fall on hard times, isn’t even protecting people from destitution. The next government must step in to ensure a social security system that guarantees everyone in our country can afford the essentials of life.

Paul Kissack, CEO of anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation