Prize-winning poverty book's authors donate prize money to charity

Two Teesside University professors, whose book on poverty in the UK has won an award, have donated their £2,000 prize to a charity helping people living in poverty.

Professors Rob MacDonald and Tracy Shildrick were awarded the British Academy Peter Townsend Policy Press Prize for their book 'Poverty and Insecurity: Life in Low-pay, No-pay Britain', which exposed the myth of the 'benefits scrounger'.

The book was based on research with people from Middlesbrough who were caught up in the 'low-pay, no-pay' cycle. It demonstrated that people living in poverty are not like the "prejudiced portraits of benefit scroungers" as depicted in popular culture. Instead it found a lasting work commitment and a hatred of claiming benefits among those living in, or close to, poverty.

The authors donated the £2,000 prize money to Thrive, a charity based in Thornaby which combines research, campaigns and projects to help the most excluded households in the region.