This chapter explores the social policy context in which a growing number of young people have become so excluded from mainstream forms of economic and social support, that they have had to turn to alternative – and inherently risky – sources of income. Two important contextual issues need to be recognised. First, the main focus here is upon young people who may resort to begging, rather than begging by other age groups. The intention of this chapter is not, however, to provide a detailed review of young beggars themselves, but of the social policy context that has produced forms and patterns of social exclusion among the young in which begging can and does occur. Second, begging is only one of a range of different activities to which young people in poverty turn. Indeed, as Carlen (1997) has documented, many young people in the most extreme circumstances of unemployment and homelessness regard begging as an activity they would never contemplate. The main aim of the chapter is therefore to set begging in two main contexts: first, to see it as part (albeit an extreme part) of a range of different behaviours by those who are socially excluded and in poverty; second, to see this wider syndrome as the result of social and economic policies and processes that have led to their poverty and social exclusion. The chapter does, however, also identify those groups of young people most at risk of having to resort to begging, and social policy areas which need to be addressed to reverse poverty and social exclusion. It suggests ways of creating a social and economic environment in which begging may cease to be accepted as a necessary option by some young people.

The social and economic context of social exclusion

Other chapters in this volume testify that begging has a long history. Yet it has increased substantially in both extent and visibility in Britain in the last 20 years; and among those who beg are an increasing number and proportion of young people. The characteristics of those who beg also reveal an association between begging and a lack of involvement in the formal labour market, homelessness in its various guises, detachment from families, having been in the formal childcare (‘children looked-after’) system, and periodic involvement in crime and the criminal justice system, including imprisonment.