Right now, millions of people in the UK can’t afford the basics to stay clean.
This is hygiene poverty - not being able to afford everyday essentials like soap, toothpaste or period products that most take for granted.
Hygiene poverty is a hidden crisis, holding people back from school, work and opportunities for the future.
- 8.7 million adults have missed work or a job interview because of hygiene poverty.
- 1 in 10 children have skipped school, often through fear of bullying.
- Confidence, health, and opportunities are being lost every single day.
Without intervention, thousands more people will be pushed into hygiene poverty by 2030. This is not the society we want to be.
A Partnership for Change
In Kind Direct and The Hygiene Bank - the UK’s leading charities tackling hygiene poverty - are joining forces to end hygiene poverty by 2030.
Together, we are creating the UK’s first Roadmap to End Hygiene Poverty, rooted in evidence, lived experience, and collaboration with government, businesses, and communities.
We will:
Measure it
Map it
Solve it
Why now?
Hygiene poverty is growing. Rising costs, wage stagnation and overstretched services mean more families are being pulled into crisis every year. No one in the UK should be forced to choose between heating their homes, eating and staying clean.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Hygiene poverty is solvable - if we choose to solve it.
Learn more about InKind Direct.
How you can help
This National Hygiene Week (6–12 October 2025), we’re launching a movement to end hygiene poverty. We are calling on businesses, communities, policymakers, experts in the area and those with lived experience to join us.
We need action.
Be part of the collective effort to shape the roadmap.
Help us raise awareness about this hidden crisis
Your lived experience can shape the solutions and help drive change.
Help us end hygiene poverty
Your gift can take us one step closer to ending hygiene poverty.
By donating today, you'll help us support families facing the impossible choice between buying food and personal care or cleaning products.
Your generous gift will give children and adults the essentials they need to learn and work. You will be giving them an opportunity for a bright future.
💛 This is the beginning of the end of hygiene poverty. Will you stand with us?
