Poverty, Neoliberalism, and Stigma: Lived Experiences of Seeking Support from the Third Sector

The pervasive issue of poverty, which now affects one in five people in the UK (CPAG, 2023), has been exacerbated by years of austerity and welfare reforms. This, in addition to the Cost-of-Living Crisis, means more people than ever are accessing help from foodbanks (and clothes and goods providers) and welfare advice agencies, many for the first time

(Citizens Advice, 2023, The Trussell Trust, 2023). With this comes increased stigma - a corrosive social force (Tyler, 2020), with deep psychological impact on people in poverty. Academic literature has shown how stigma manifests in seeking support from government programmes and from larger established

organisations in the third sector. However, there is a gap in the literature for a comprehensive exploration of stigma and third-sector organisations (TSOs) that support people living in poverty. Research into the way in which stigma manifests for people seeking help, and what impact has on their seeking support, is needed to influence

tangible change in the third sector to have a greater awareness of stigma and reduce stigmatising practices.Research Questions How does stigma manifest for people living in poverty seeking support from the third sector? To what extent does stigma affect how and where people seek support? What are the characteristics of organisations that are less associated with stigma, and

have the recent crises led to more or less of these? Literature review Neoliberal ideology has led both to a competitive and efficiency-driven Third Sector (Hoggett et al., 2013) and an intensification of discourse that individualises poverty (Wiggan, 2012). This popular discourse around poverty -in which poverty is the fault of the

person themselves rather than societal issues and structures- serves to stigmatise the people experiencing hardship. This stigmatisation can take different forms. Relevant to this research is Stuber and Schlesinger's (2006), finding that participation in means-tested government programs is associated with two types of stigma-namely, identity stigma

(internalising negative stereotypes) and treatment stigma (a fear that others may treat them badly). Furthermore, the concept of 'othering' (Lister, 2015), whereby the 'non-poor' treats 'the poor' as different, is distinctly relevant to this research, given the relative privilege of TSO employees to people they help. This stigmatising culture of

'othering' is internalised and contributes to feelings of shame among service users in foodbanks, even before their actual experience with the foodbanks (Power, 2023). What will this add to academic and empirical knowledge? The proposed study will contribute to the sociological and social policy literature on

poverty and stigma and will add unique contributions about how these interact with the Third Sector. It will shed light on the different ways stigma manifests - whether this be self-stigmatisation, structural or racial stigma, for example - and how people living in poverty make decisions about seeking support. It will make comparisons between types of

organisations to understand whether there are differences between food and goods providers and advice agencies, and the impact when both are offered. In addition, it will add insight to the growing literature using participatory methods in research on poverty.