This is an analysis of the potential of community-based financial services to reduce poverty and combat social exclusion in Britain. From this base, the authors move to a critical review of the outcomes of microfinance interventions around the world. They consider innovative economic responses to poverty in countries such as Bangladesh and Bolivia. Then drawing on their own research, they set out ways to counter financial exclusion in Britain; how to enable people to build assets and acquire capital, and provide mechanisms for the wealth retention in communities deserted by conventional banks.

This book addresses one of the main causes of poverty, financial exclusion – the inability to access finance from the high-street banks. People on low or irregular incomes typically have to resort to loan sharks, ‘doorstep lenders’ and other informal credit sources, a predicament which makes escape from the poverty trap doubly difficult. This book will be vital reading for those concerned with social policy, microfinance and anti-poverty policies in industrialised countries and around the world.

How many people live in poverty in the UK, and how has this changed over recent decades? Are those in poverty more likely to suffer other forms of disadvantage or social exclusion? Is exclusion multi-dimensional, taking different forms for different groups or places? Based on the largest UK study of its kind ever commissioned, this fascinating book provides the most detailed national picture of these problems. Chapters consider a range of dimensions of disadvantage as well as poverty - access to local services or employment, social relations or civic participation, health and well-being. The book also explores relationships between these in the first truly multi-dimensional analysis of exclusion. Written by leading academics, this is an authoritative account of welfare outcomes achieved across the UK. A companion volume Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK: Volume 1 focuses on specific groups such as children or older people, and different geographical areas.

How can we measure poverty in the United Kingdom today, and which measures are most reliable? Is poverty related to other problems and disadvantages? Based on the largest research study on UK poverty ever commissioned, these fascinating volumes answer these questions and more, providing the most authoritative and up-to-date picture ever assembled of poverty throughout the four countries of the United Kingdom. Using state-of-the-art measurement methods, Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK looks across geography, time, and key domains like health, employment, and housing to make enlightening-and sometimes shocking-comparisons. Volume One focuses on assessing poverty through the lens of a wide range of groups, reporting on the living standards of older and younger people, parents and children, ethnic groups, and disabled people-as well as on the differing impacts of political intervention. --

This book brings to light important issues which are often ignored - that the social effects of poverty are acute in rural areas. Milbourne examines the effects of poverty on issues such as social exclusion in rural areas.

Poverty is perceived as an urban problem, yet many in rural Britain also experience hardship. This book explores how and why people in rural areas experience and negotiate poverty and social exclusion. It examines the role of societal processes, individual circumstances, sources of support (markets; state; voluntary organisations; family and friends) and the role of place. It concludes that the UK’s welfare system is poorly adapted to rural areas, with the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and cutbacks exacerbating pressures. Voluntary organisations increasingly fill gaps in support left by the state. Invaluable to those in policy and practice, the book recommends a combination of person-based and place-based approaches to tackle rural poverty.