A society free from poverty: how do we get there and what would it look like?
The event challenges the old adage, 'The poor will always be with us', by envisaging a future free from poverty. The speakers will identify the gains for children and for society as a whole from ending child poverty and the gains for workers, families and the economy from ending bad jobs.
We will discuss some of the key policies and strategies that can bring a society free from poverty into reality, including re-thinking care and tackling inter-generational inequalities.
Meet our speakers and chair
Abby Jitendra (@abbyabhaya, @abbyabhaya.bsky.social) is Principal Policy Adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Abby is working on developing a new programme of work on care, family and relationships. Her areas of expertise include energy policy and regulation, destitution, household debt and social security. Abby previously worked at Citizens Advice, leading a team of policy researchers and campaigners to stand up for consumers as energy companies failed and costs increased. Before that, she had oversight of policy and research at anti-poverty charity Trussell. She is a trustee of Quaker Social Action.
Abigail McKnight is Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at LSE. Abigail’s research interests include inequality, poverty, wealth, social mobility, higher education and employment policy. She has recently held research grants from Itla Children’s Foundation, the European Commission, the Nuffield Foundation, the Low Pay Commission and the Social Mobility Commission. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and has worked in CASE since 1999.
Thomas C. Stephens (@TCStephens) is Teaching Fellow at the LSE School of Public Policy and Associate Fellow of the New Economics Foundation. Tom was recently awarded a PhD in Social Policy at LSE, for a thesis on "Work and wellbeing in modern Britain: an application of the Capability Approach". At NEF, he conducts (mainly quantitative) research on good work and early years education and care, while his academic research focuses on exploring and the wider circumstances of workers - such as care, family and health-related commitments they manage alongside work; and the choices they have over alternative work opportunities.
Tania Burchardt is Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion and Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE.
More about this event
This event is part of the LSE Festival: Visions for the Future running from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 June 2025, with a series of events exploring the threats and opportunities of the near and distant future, and what a better world could look like. Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 19 May.
The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) examines different dimensions of social disadvantage, and analyses the impact of public policy.
The Department of Social Policy is an internationally recognised centre of research and teaching in social and public policy. From its foundation in 1912 it has carried out cutting edge research on core social problems, and helped to develop policy solutions.
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