The UK"s informal economy is huge at £75 billion per year. It has been discovered that in the deprived London borough of Newham one in four people of working age work informally. The government will never reach its anti-poverty, employment, or regeneration targets if it does not seek to understand and include the informal economy in all of its strategies and targets. This report explores the experience of people engaged in low-paid informal work, as a response to poverty. It provides evidence on which to develop policies and practices to enable more people to make the transition from the informal to formal economy. The report is designed for government decision and policy makers, politicians, national assemblies, regional development agencies, local authorities and statutory delivery agencies, businesses, voluntary and community sector, trade unions, think tanks, as well as the general public. It provides in-depth evidence and a range of practical recommendations to support more people to make the transition from the informal to formal economy. (REPORT)