Stories database

Why should someone who is in a really vulnerable position pay more?

Paulette describes her experiences of living with the poverty premium by paying additional costs for a prepayment meter

Fair By Design

I didn’t know how I was going to pay my bills or feed myself and my daughter

Aneita talks about how a problem with her tax credits meant she was forced to use a food bank

Trussell Trust

If my rent goes for one month without being paid, then I’m homeless

Joanna talks about how her monthly paycheque is not enough to cover her rent, food, bills and other family essentials

Shelter

I’m a teacher, I’m a single mother, I have a sick son, and yet this is our only option

Georgina talks about the challenges of living with her young son in a tiny one-bedroom flat that is plagued with rats

Shelter

If you grow up in poverty, there are so many more things against you

Two friends, Amelia and Naomi, share their different experiences of poverty and the impact it has had on them

End Child Poverty

It's not fair to expect people and their children to hop about from home to home

Lucie talks about the regular stress and upheaval for her and her children of having to move seven times in the last 11 years

Shelter

It's always going through my head - am I falling behind?

Kaydence lives in a remote area of Scotland and has been home-schooling while caring for her disabled sister

British children in poverty with no beds to sleep in or clean clothes to wear

This documentary explores how cuts to children's services are affecting the poorest families and disrupting their children’s education

Channel 4

NHS nurse and single mum living on just £24 a week after bills

Heather says she has to take on extra shifts rather than spend time with her children, even working during her holiday

Wales Online

I made money by betting inequality was going to destroy our economy

City trader turned campaigner Gary Stevenson on how our current economic system is broken, and rewards speculation

Gary's Economics

I don’t know how my school would function without teaching assistants

Southampton headteacher Sian Carr talks about the impact of the cost of living crisis on teaching assistants

Guardian

A society deeply divided between the haves and have-nots ceases to function normally

Graham Hobson, Photobox founder, talks about how unjustifiably excessive pay for CEOs creates social, economic and political problems

Patriotic Millionaires

Tax is your contribution back to the society that enabled you to accumulate wealth in the first place

Graham Hobson, the founder of Photobox, talks about why he believes that the wealthy should pay more tax

Patriotic Millionaires

The cost for our daughter to attend nursery is more than our mortgage

Megan talks about how, although she is training full-time as a midwife, she only gets 15 hours of free childcare per week

Sutton Trust

I didn’t get the support I needed because of resourcing issues

People talk about their experiences of not being able to access the health and care support that they needed

Engage Britain

Paying a higher rate of tax on earnings above £200k is not going to make you poor, is it?

Gemma McGough argues that millionaires like her should be taxed more to tackle inequality and support public services

Patriotic Millionaires

Breathing clean air is every child's human right - governments have a duty of care

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah talks about her daughter Ella, who died at the age of seven as a result of air pollution

TED

I’ve had worse care from the NHS because of who I am

People talk about their experiences of discrimination in the health and care system because of their background

Engage Britain

These days, we shouldn’t be treated like second-class citizens

People talk about how disabled people, neurodiverse people and their loved ones feel when struggling to get support

Engage Britain

The outsized carbon footprints of the super-rich

Billionaires have carbon footprints that can be thousands of times higher than those of average citizens, even in the richest countries

Indiana University