‘I live off £30 a month’: Nearly 4 million people in UK experienced ‘destitution’ last year

Destitution – it’s a word almost from another age, conjuring visions of desperate, grinding poverty. But it is a fact of life right now , for increasing numbers of people, according to new research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation thinktank.

In a joint study with Heriot-Watt University, they  found that 3.8 million people – a million of them children – experienced destitution last year defined as being unable to meet some of the most basic needs – staying dry, clean, warm and fed.