Cookies on oxfam

We use cookies to ensure that you have the best experience on our website. If you continue browsing, we’ll assume that you are happy to receive all our cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Find out more Close

Oxfam's UK poverty blog

Working to improve the lives of poor people in the UK.

Trip to the Bay

Anna McVicker writes: This week four women from Oxfam's Building Communities and Sustainable Livelihoods group based in South Riverside Community Development Centre took the bus down to Cardiff Bay for an afternoon of coffee and culture. The sun wasn't shining (in fact it was pouring), but we had a lot of fun. The visit came about after some of the women told me that several of them had never taken a bus ride in Cardiff...

Read more

From Plant to Plate at Tredegar House

The Plant 2 Plate Project kicked off at the allotment in the grounds of Tredegar House on Wednesday. Three of the families supported through Oxfam Cymru's UK Poverty Project at Duffryn Community Link turned up and really got stuck in. "They achieved lots in the first day on site- putting together and siting eight raised beds, and sowing seeds in the greenhouse. There was a real sense of team working and they all thoroughly enjoyed...

Read more

Why is Oxfam working with food banks in the UK?

There's a saying in my home town of Wigan, in the North of England, that's often shouted at football matches and displayed on souvenirs. It goes 'We come from Wigan and we live in mud huts.'   ...

Read more

For once, the media showed they understand poverty in the UK

Since Iain Duncan Smith rashly joined a long list of politicians trying to "experience poverty" by declaring that he could live on £53 a week (the level of income a market trader said he had to live on after facing a cut in Housing Benefit), he has stimulated a wave of impassioned reactions. ...

Read more

Speaking up for the most vulnerable in Britain is not “out of touch”

The April Fool's Day welfare changes are no joke. They are a serious threat to those living in poverty in the UK. Katherine Trebeck, Research and Policy Adviser for Oxfam's UK Poverty programme, dismantles the Chancellor's claim that charities, churches and commentators are spreading "ill-informed rubbish", showing it to be based on little more than easy fictions and broad stereotypes. ...

Read more
FAN group in action

FANs gather for fun and friendship

Who is my friend? Who is my neighbour? Being a good friend and neighbour starts with each one of us. FAN groups are small groups of friends and neighbours - or people who soon become friends.  A FAN group is a lovely place to meet others in your community. They are for anyone who wants to meet new people and improve their English if they are learning the language. At a FAN meeting,  people  gather to listen to each other...

Read more