The separation of the very poorest in society - the underclass - from the rest of the community over the last decade is one of the most alarming features of contemporary Britain, and signals a reversal of the notion of citizenship as an incorporating force. Frank Field has published widely on poverty and related matters, and in this book examines how the creation of the new underclass has come about: - very high unemployment causes rapid downward social mobility for those denied access to the labour market - the reshaping of British culture around the enterprise ethos has effected a widening in class differences - through restrictions in the benefits system the poor are excluded from rapidly rising living standards - a significant change in public attitudes towards the poor has led to the psychological and political separation of the very poorest from the rest of the community. Frank Field used a wide range of data - much of it from official sources - to show how the poor will continue to lose out while current attitudes persist.