Hidden in statistics? On the lived experience of poverty

Abstract

Poverty aware practice suggests that understanding poverty and its effects can, in turn, shape practice. Arguably, this understanding is something that should underpin social work processes from referral, to assessment, through to intervention. Yet just what it means to experience poverty with respect to the day to days lives of those who do often remains ‘hidden in statistics’. This article goes beyond statistics to relate understandings of poverty to lived experience. The method for doing so consists of taking up a definition of poverty developed as part of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy in Ireland in the 90s and juxtaposing this with an unblemished snapshot into the lives of persons experiencing poverty. In doing so, it is shown that those who experience poverty do so in an excluded social space which consists of material disadvantage but also instability, the inability to take part in society and experiences of social demotion.