Long-term health conditions affect a large proportion of working-age adults in Britain, often limiting daily activities, employment chances, and incomes. This heavy burden of long-term ill-health is now of major policy concern across the UK health and social welfare arenas. Government interventions aim to increase self-reliance among those with long-term ill-health and reduce the costs to the state under such conditions. However, protecting individuals and families from the risk of poverty while experiencing long-term ill-health is not receiving the attention deserved. Research has highlighted the association between long-term ill-health and the risk of poverty, and has recognized the far-reaching effects that such health conditions can have on individuals and their families. Less is known about the pathways that link ill-health to poverty or how they may be broken. In particular, little attention has been given to social participation, access to non-labor income, and other knock-on ef

Sarah Salway is Principal Research Fellow in the Centre for Health and Social Care Research, Sheffield Hallam University. Lucinda Platt is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. Punita Chowbey is Research Associate, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sheffield. Kaveri Harriss is a doctoral student in the Centre for Population Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Elizabeth Bayliss is Executive Director, Social Action for Health.