The Beveridge Report of 1942 outlined five ‘giants’ that held people in poverty – idleness (a lack of employment opportunities), ignorance (a lack of education), disease (a lack of access to adequate healthcare), squalor (a lack of adequate housing), and want (a lack of food and other essentials). More than 80 years on, what’s changed? What hasn’t? And what can we do? 

Helen Barnard is Director of Policy, Research and Impact at the Trussell Trust. She was formerly Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Research and Policy Director at Pro Bono Economics. She is a leading national expert on poverty, inequality and social policy. Her extensive body of research and policy work have covered poverty, destitution, labour markets, housing, social security and civil society. She is author of ‘Want (Giants: a new Beveridge Report)’ which examines modern day poverty and the institutions and reforms required to address it.

Thanks again to Owen O'Brien for permission to use his music: Living in the shadow (feat. Samu'el)