Despite being a focal point of Labour’s 2024 election campaign, poverty continues to rise. It’s now been 20 years since a prolonged decrease in poverty rates, with 14.3 million people and 31% of UK children living in poverty in 2025. Fixing inequality has never been more urgent.

In this eye-opening book, expert and host of the Poverty Unpacked podcast Keetie Roelen argues that empathy -not policy alone – is the missing ingredient in the fight against poverty. She takes readers inside poverty’s lived experience across the social spectrum, explores the latest ideas and programmes to combat it across the globe, and arms readers with the information needed to enact lasting social change.