Despite policies to tackle long-term unemployment, millions are still unemployed for long periods of time. Perri 6 argues that these approaches ignore the importance of social networks for helping people to get work and escape poverty. Bringing together a wide range of evidence, he  shows that we need to tackle ‘network poverty’ by helping people make the informal ties they need to acquire work and sets out a comprehensive programme for re-engineering welfare state services. Perri 6 is a writer, lecturer and Demos Associate.