The findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights situation from his country visit to the United Kingdom (UK) are alarming. In his report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur indicates that one fifth of the UK’s population (14 million people) live in poverty, with 1.5 million of them having experienced destitution in 2017. The report also illustrates how austerity measures have hit poor people hardest and that women, racial and ethnic minorities, children, single parents (90% of whom are women), persons with disabilities and members of other historically marginalised groups face disproportionately higher risks of poverty. The report makes painful reading, especially in the knowledge that, in a country with one of the world’s largest economies and one of the world’s biggest defence budgets, poverty is avoidable.