About the project

We are a nation in debt. The cost-of-living crisis, austerity, spiralling costs of renting, and decimation of social housing stock, have all conspired to make life harder for all but the wealthiest. For too many families, debt has become a necessity rather than a choice.

We are driven to challenge societal discourse on problem debt and poverty to one of compassion rather than judgement; and from a harm-reduction-centred perspective, to make changes to the punitive policy architectures through which the health, well-being and futures of adults and children in the UK are being eroded. 

Our research clearly indicates that debt is not only a major factor in why families become homeless, but it also worsens during stays in temporary accommodation and can continue to amass even when homelessness ends. This debt trap is acutely felt by single mothers who have survived domestic abuse. They have not fallen into a debt trap; they have been actively pulled into it by systematic failings of successive governments.