ABSTRACT
The future of the poverty lobby is explored under the three broad headings when evaluating effectiveness: the environment, strategies and resources. The future is determined by a combination of environmental factors which are largely outside the control of the poverty groups, but also by the strategies pursued in trying to influence policy outcomes and by the resources groups can mobilize. Thus welfare issues were extremely important, and highly salient in influencing voting intentions and the poverty lobby undoubtedly played an important part in this. The interesting feature from the point of view of the poverty lobby, however, is the difference in turnout between the claimant groups. The poverty lobby is under-resourced compared with the big battalions that are active in other issue-communities. Nevertheless the past twenty years have shown that it is imaginative and resourceful and can affect policy. This is both a daunting challenge and an opportunity to bring about change for all those working in the poverty lobby.
