ABSTRACT
Preventing poverty brings double benefits to societies and their members. It saves individuals, families and the wider community and its institutions from having to bear the multiple social and economic costs of poverty and of measures needed to treat these and bring about recovery over time. The improved quality of life for all those not caught in poverty has social and economic benefits including a fuller participation in society and a greater contribution from the increased productivity of those avoiding poverty. Yet the urgent need to help those already in poverty absorbs virtually all action, especially when the dominant individualist discourse deflects attention from the structural causes of poverty. Attention is given to developing strategies for ‘upstream’ policies that work to prevent poverty and the need to tackle others that tend to reinforce existing inequalities. Long-term gains from labour markets operating inclusively to provide security with decent wages and prospects are examined. The preventive powers of a good social security system and a robust welfare state are a necessary complement. They provide an effective automatic stabiliser that helps maintain consumer spending and social services, supporting demand and employment with benefits that are not only economic but political, social and individual.
