Many theorists now give credence to the idea that those in informal paid work are an economic asset and that policy initiatives should be aimed at bringing them into the legitimate sphere. However, where people are on low incomes and face poverty, this presents a particular challenge. This study examines the relationship between poverty and informal work. Exploring the experiences of people engaged in low-paid informal work, it contends that unless government seeks to understand and include the informal economy in its strategies, it will never be able to reach its employment, anti-poverty or regeneration targets. The research shows that people in some deprived areas work informally - out of need, not greed -in response to poverty. Identifying low benefit rates, low wages and rules which limit the hours people can work as the three basic issues that underpin informal work, the report examines what works, and what does not, in tackling this activity. It provides in-depth evidence and a range of practical solutions to support and enable more people who wish to, to make the transition from the informal to formal economy. The report offers a greater understanding of the choices that people on low incomes are making and on how government policy and practice can better respond to these. People in low-paid informal work is aimed at government decision and policy makers, politicians, national assemblies, regional development agencies, local authorities and statutory delivery agencies, businesses, the voluntary and community sectors, trade unions and think tanks, as well as the general public.

The breath held or expelled in wonder, frustration or delight energises Emma Neale's writing. Poems in The Truth Garden take risks because they need to; in the clamour of family life they have required attention, collected thought and a spirited attitude. How else to "stockpile time, how hoard its shine", except in poems drawn from relationships, home and garden and cast in words that "spill like incandescence around your hands". (Cilla McQueen, 2011 Kathleen Grattan Award judge). This is the fourth book in the series arising from the Kathleen Grattan Award for Poetry. The award was established with a bequest by Jocelyn Grattan, in memory of her mother, who was a poet, journalist and editor. Each book is produced with attention to the traditional qualities of fine book production, in typography, illustration, design, paper and binding. This book was illustrated by Kathryn Madill and designed by Fiona Moffat.

In this follow-up collection to the award-winning The Truth Garden, Emma Neale asks where exactly do the personal and the political drop hands? In poems that are engaged, compelling, witty and moving, she looks at how we navigate a true line through the psychological, environmental, social and economic anxieties of our times. The book examines love in its many guises, and also energetically responds to the distractions and delights of the digital age. Writing of Emma Neale’s ‘kitchen-familiar and cosmic-wide attentions’, Poet Laureate Vincent O’Sullivan has said, ‘There is something so celebratory about Emma Neale’s poetry, about its eager, informed, needle-eyed engagement with the contemporary world … [She runs] the hot thread of linguistic flare and precision through whatever occasion she takes up.’