Following the Spring Statement in March, the Resolution Foundation published analysis estimating that another 1.3 million people would be pushed into poverty next year. Professor Michael Marmot has warned of an impending “humanitarian calamity” and argued that to deprive citizens of basic material needs robs them of their dignity. In place of a policy response to the poverty pandemic there is a void. Cue the Health Disparities White Paper (currently being drafted in the new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities). It could be out as soon as May or June, so the influencing window is narrow. The priority given, by the public and politicians, to tackling the elective backlog in the NHS is understandable. We can see it, right here and right now. However, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has also acknowledged the link between poverty and poor health and outlined his ambition to address the ‘social backlog’. Both are essential and both are connected. The Preve