Evidence shows that poverty, and the insecurity that inevitably accompanies it, is affecting the lives of more and more ordinary working-age people and families, not just in Britain and the UK more broadly but also across the globe (Standing, 2010; 2014; 2016). Poverty has become a normalised aspect of day-to-day life for millions of individuals and families in Britain today, yet it occupies a peculiar and contradictory position in both popular and political debates. Poverty is widespread in Britain, as well as in the UK more broadly, and all indications show that its incidence, particularly for children and working-age households, will continue to rise under the current direction of policy (Hood and Waters, 2017). Poverty in Britain is most often caused by ‘poor work’ (Byrne, 2005) – that is, work that fails to take people away from poverty either for long enough or far enough to make a difference to their lives – and by inadequate ‘welfare’, particularly for those forced to rely on out-of-work benefits (JRF, 2016). More and more people find themselves trapped between the two as they cycle in and out of short-term, low-paid work and on and off inadequate (and increasingly difficult to access) ‘welfare’ payments. Yet the low-pay, no-pay cycle, as it is often referred to, still remains a relative blind spot in political and policy debates. Since 2010, cuts forced through in the name of austerity have also added to the problem, although the general trends towards increasing inequality and diminishing opportunities for those who are economically marginalised go back much further than the recession of 2008 and the subsequent imposition of numerous cuts. Yet, despite the widespread existence of poverty in Britain, it is all too frequently ignored, increasingly demonised and, when it is discussed, almost always presented in ways that are misleading and inaccurate.