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This article reflects on the recent 'turn to lived experience' within academia and the third sector in the UK and discusses some issues arising. It then focuses on ways in which these issues might be addressed – including through a methodology employed by ATD Fourth World, an international human rights-based anti-poverty organisation founded after the Second World War that works in partnership with people affected by poverty. ATD developed the 'merging of knowledge and practice' to bring together different kinds of expertise, including that acquired from lived experience, to create a richer form of knowledge and better-informed practice. The article discusses this method and suggests various ways in which the lived experience of poverty can be embedded in public debate, policy and practice. People with experience of poverty can be involved in examining and conveying the many dimensions of that experience; providing training for officials dealing with people in poverty; and designing and evaluating relevant policies.

This article reviews evidence on and possible causes of non-take-up of social security benefits, focusing on the UK, and analyses the implications of the introduction of Universal Credit for take-up. It discusses why (non-)take-up is an important issue, in relation to those affected, the performance of social policies in relation to their goals and the nature of social citizenship. It explains how take-up is usually measured (or estimated) in the UK, giving some recent results, and describing recent policy decisions to halt the publication of figures on take-up of working-age benefits. It investigates explanations put forward about why entitlements are not claimed, highlighting analysis of obstacles at the individual claimant level; barriers within benefits administration; problems with system design; and wider structural issues in society. It examines the implications of the introduction of Universal Credit both for take-up and for the evidence base about it. The integrated nature of Universal Credit was argued to favour higher take-up; but features of its design and administration may have the opposite effect. Evidence is, however, lacking on the outcome of this combination. The conclusion reflects on the future of initiatives to boost benefit take-up, especially those relying on automation – often interpreted in different ways. It argues in favour of taking more account of the reasons for non-take-up relating to the nature of potential claimants' relationship with the state, and the characteristics of benefits left unclaimed, rather than assuming that administrative information and automation will overcome all the obstacles currently resulting in non-take-up.

Universal Credit is a fundamental reform of the UK's social security system. It is also seen as embodying a traditional view of the family. Drawing on principles for gender analysis of 'welfare reform', this article critically examines how couples claiming Universal Credit are conceptualised by the UK government, in relation to equality impact assessments of the proposals; guidance for, and data and studies about, claimants; policy debates; and research by or for government. It demonstrates a failure to interrogate the concept of the unitary household or the two-way influence of gender roles, relationships and inequalities within couples and 'welfare reform'.

A recent government proposal to increase national insurance contributions for the self-employed in the UK, in return for improved pensions and potentially also parental benefits, was immediately reversed. This article analyses the reasons behind this about-turn, linking them to tensions between the goals of thwarting 'bogus' self-employment and increasing tax revenues versus commitment to a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare economy. The analysis is set in the context of the singularity of the UK system in relation to much social protection in continental Europe, and wider debates about the roles of individual, state and labour market in providing security.

There is frequent confusion in public debate and media stories between low pay and in‐work poverty. Fran Bennett argues that a focus on gender roles and relationships, and gendered access to resources, is essential to unpick the distinction between these two problems.

The 'living wage' is an idea with a long history in the UK currently enjoying a renaissance. This article explores possible reasons for its re-emergence as a policy demand, but argues that thinking of low pay primarily as 'poverty pay' caused by employers' failure to pay a living wage raises practical and conceptual issues that are problematic. It examines to what extent recent attempts to resolve such issues in the UK and elsewhere have succeeded, and concludes by suggesting that alternative ways of analysing and addressing the two key issues associated with the living wage, low pay and in work poverty, are required.

Following the confusion that has surrounded the Chancellor's announcement on cuts to child benefit for higher‐rate taxpayers, Fran Bennett defends the existing benefit as simple, successful and fair.