Food banks. Fuel poverty. Heating vs Eating. Why has poverty become the new normal in the UK, accepted as “just the way it is” in one of the world’s richest countries? Stigma, says sociologist Imogen Tyler, has been part of this normalisation: it’s dehumanised some of society’s vulnerable people, devaluing lives and destroying compassion to boot.

Helen Greatorex, Chief Officer at North Lancashire Citizens Advice, tells Imogen what she’s seen working on the welfare frontline over the years. It’s a story of desperation – working families needing food and fuel help; reworked personal budgets still unable to cover essentials; people shut out from the most basic social life that makes existence bearable.

But Helen also shares a story of hope, as she describes how her CAB office is transforming how it helps people in need – and gives a rallying call to stay outraged at destitution, no matter how common it is.

Credits:

Host: Imogen Tyler
Guest: Helen Greatorex
Executive & Development Producer: Alice Bloch
Project Lead: Imogen Tyler
Project Officer: Danielle Galway
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music & Artwork: Bruce Bennett

Episode resources

• Changing life expectancy and why it matters An animation from Glasgow Centre for Population Health
• Danny Dorling’s work on austerity and excess deaths
• Poverty propaganda: Exploring the myths Tracey Shildrick (2018)
• Benefits broods: The cultural and political crafting of anti-welfare commonsense Tracey Jensen & Imogen Tyler (2015)
• Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain Imogen Tyler (2013)
• The Violence of Austerity Vickie Cooper and David Whyte, eds. (2017)
• Crippled: austerity and the demonization of disabled people Frances Ryan (2019)
• From disability to destitution Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2022)
• The Care Manifesto : The Politics of Interdependence The Care Collective (2020)
• Bread for all : the origins of the welfare state Chris Renwick (2017)
• Good times, bad times : the welfare myth of them and us John Hills (2015)

Find extended reading lists and learn more about The Stigma Conversations at The Sociological Review

Take Action!

The Poverty Truth Network
North Lancashire Citizens Advice Bureau
Morecambe Bay foodbank
Joseph Rowntree Foundation