How to write and talk about poverty

We should all write and talk about poverty in a way that is both effective and respectful. The challenge is to recognise that language matters and to avoid the pitfalls of creating a feeling of "them and us", portraying an undeserving poor or feeding inadvertently into any stigma surrounding poverty. There are 3 goals for practitioners:

• Effective description. This is the challenge of writing to deliver outcomes, e.g. securing funds or support for anti-poverty interventions and, evaluating and describing the poverty-reducing impact of activity.
• Sensitive description. This is the challenge of describing poverty in a way that is respectful toward people experiencing poverty and aware of how these descriptions might be received by them.

• Progressive description. This is the transformative challenge - using language to change any negative misperceptions.

Practitioners should commit to follow and promote such an approach to describing poverty. The following principles and guidance on word choice may be a helpful starting point.

Adopting progressive principles for writing poverty

The following broad principles should be adhered to in writing and describing poverty:

• Avoid over-generalisation
• Avoid pejorative language that is disrespectful, even if this language has currency.
• View language as a tool in its own right for tackling the misperceptions surrounding poverty

• Seek to communicate in a manner that is at once effective, sensitive and progressive.

Don't use - Unacceptable everyday language

Some language can be seen as derogatory and should not be used. Words that should be avoided include:

• The poor / Undeserving poor / Deserving poor (as this implies an undeserving poor)
• Work-shy
• Underclass
• Welfare dependency / handouts / benefit culture / Languishing on benefit
• Sponger, scroungers

• Sink estates

Use cautiously - Problematic (but powerful) everyday language

Some language has the potential to make either a positive or a negative contribution to challenging poverty and must be used with care. Following the progressive principles outlined above may assist in avoiding inadvertent problems being created by using words such as:

• Poor people
• Impoverished
• Poverty-stricken
• Poor places / Deprived places
• Council housing estates / Peripheral housing estates / Estates
• Marginalised / Peripheral / Hidden
• The downtrodden
• Hard working families / hard working majority (as this implies that there are work-shy families)

• Benefit cheats

Use whenever possible - Respectful and progressive language

Some language emphasises that the problem is the condition of poverty (rather than the problem being the people who experience poverty). For example:

• People experiencing poverty
• Areas with deprivation / areas with poverty

• Low income living / living life on a low income

On this page you can access a paper on how to write and talk about poverty. You can also access links to a range of further reading.