Poverty in the UK in 2023: The Crisis of Complexity

The latest Joseph Rowntree Foundation report — Destitution in the UK 2023 — puts in black and white what many working in the charity sector know all too well: poverty and destitution are on the rise in the UK. Indeed more than one million children were living in destitution last year — that’s 8.15% of all children in the UK.

That’s led us to look deeper at the state of poverty in the UK so we can tailor SoGood’s solutions to create maximum impact. We’ve dug into the research to analyse what the state of play is in the UK, what the drivers of destitution are, and what viable solutions are to tackle this complicated problem.

The research clearly shows:

• An increasing number of people are living in poverty.
• Poverty rates are increasing in multi-person households.
• Immigration is not the root cause.

When it comes to the drivers of destitution, the JRF refer to “complex needs” — basically the factors that make accessing and benefiting from support services more challenging. They include factors like poor health; addiction and substance abuse; social isolation, and limited education and skills.

The problem

People facing multiple challenges require tailored and multifaceted support services. And this is where the problem lies: the charity sector has traditionally operated in silos, without the kind of collaborative digital tools that are common to the private sector.

Our takeaway

What’s required is increased collaboration and coordination across the public sector and charity sector (aka, the Third Sector). That’s what we at SoGood are looking to do. To that end, we’re developing tools and technologies that surface and standardise underlying operational data, aggregate perspectives and facilitate the allocation of support cheaply and quickly.

Read more on our website.