About Us

The goal of our work is:

‘To increase understanding of poverty among parliamentarians and to seek all party solutions, while drawing on a range of outside people and knowledge’.

Main activities in the last parliament

In 2020-21, the APPG on Poverty ran a short inquiry on the £20 uplift to universal credit and working tax credits and the impact of not maintaining the uplift permanently as well as the impact of not extending it to legacy and other benefits.

The APPG received written submissions from over 20 organisations and individuals. Following this, the APPG held an evidence session over Zoom where the group heard evidence from people with lived experience of the social security system along with a variety of third sector organisations.

You can read the report summarising the group’s findings here.

Please sign up to the mailing list if you would like to be kept informed about the work of the APPG on Poverty.

Officers of the APPG on Poverty as of June 2022

• David Linden MP – Chair and Registered Contact
• Baroness Ruth Lister – Co-Chair
• Baroness Philippa Stroud – Vice Chair
• Afzal Khan MP – Vice Chair
• Lyn Brown MP – Vice Chair
• Tony Lloyd MP – Vice Chair
• Beth Winter MP – Vice Chair
• Cat Smith MP – Vice Chair
• Robin Millar MP – Vice Chair

2023 APPG on Poverty meetings

• Minutes of AGM on 28 March 2023 including election of officers and co-chairs
• Minutes of inquiry into the (in)adequacy of social security second evidence session including oral testimonies from organisations on 14 March 2023
• Minutes of inquiry into the (in)adequacy of social security first evidence session including oral testimonies from organisations on 7 March 2023

2022 APPG on Poverty meetings

• Minutes of joint meeting with APLE Collective on the digital divide on 19 October 2022
• Minutes of AGM on 8 June 2022 including election of officers and co-chairs 
• Minutes of Officer-only meeting on 11 January 2022
• Minutes of Child Poverty Action Group’s launch event for the Ending the Need for Food Banks project, hosted by the APPG on Poverty 

2021 APPG on Poverty meetings

• Minutes of AGM on 26 May 2021 including election of officers and income and expenditure statement for 2020/21.
• Minutes of Officer-only meeting on 30 March 2021 
• Minutes of Officer-only meeting on 28 January 2021
• Minutes of evidence session on 14 January 2021 including oral testimonies from organisations and experts by experience.

2020 APPG on Poverty meetings

• Minutes of first online meeting on 1 December 2020 featuring a presentation from Matthew Oakley on the Social Metrics Commission’s measure of poverty.
• Minutes of inaugural meeting on 12 February 2020 including election of officers and update note on feedback received in relation to the poverty premium inquiry report.

2019 APPG on Poverty meetings

• Minutes of AGM on 5 February 2019 and income and expenditure statement

2018 APPG on Poverty meetings

• Minutes of poverty premium inquiry evidence session on business solutions to the poverty premium (utilities) on 12 December 2018
• Minutes of poverty premium inquiry evidence session on business solutions to the poverty premium (financial services) on 13 November 2018 and written evidence from rent-to-own retailer, BrightHouse
• Minutes of poverty premium inquiry evidence session on the role of consumer protection in addressing the poverty premium on 16 October 2018
• Minutes of poverty premium inquiry evidence session on the lived experience of the poverty premium on 10 July 2018
• Minutes of poverty premium inquiry evidence session on Fairer Markets on 18 April 2018

2017 APPG on Poverty meetings

• Minutes of EGM and parliamentary launch of the APPG on Poverty’s inquiry into the poverty premium on 12 Dec 2017 and speaking note from presentation by Sara Davies, Personal Finance Research Centre, University of Bristol
• Minutes of joint meeting of the APPG on Poverty and the APPG on Debt & Personal Finance 13 Nov 2017
• Minutes of joint meeting of the APPG on Poverty and the APPG on London 17 Oct 2017
• Minutes of meeting and election of officers 11 Oct 2017
• Income Expenditure Statement

2016 APPG on Poverty meetings

• Minutes from meeting and election of officers
• Income and expenditure statement
• Meeting note from presentation by Tess Lanning, Head of Business Development at the Living Wage Foundation

Previous Reports and Publications

In previous years the APPG focused on:

1. Children’s voices – a Children’s Manifesto addressing what to do about poverty
2. Civil society – the role civil society can play in the reduction of poverty
3. Business & Poverty – the responsibility of business to reduce poverty and what it can do in practice