Testimonies from people struggling after eight years of hard Tory policies are more nuanced and complex than you might expect

Earlier this month, in his damning report on social deprivation in the UK, the UN’s poverty envoy Philip Alston cited a number of statistics to illustrate how bad things have got in the world’s fifth-largest economy after eight years of “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” austerity policies imposed by the Tory government. “14 million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty,” he wrote. “1.5 million people are destitute, unable to afford basic essentials. The Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts a 7% rise in child poverty between 2015 and 2022, and various sources predict child poverty rates of as high as 40%.”

If those statistics are difficult to get your head around, here are some first-person stories from the sharp edge of austerity – 40 in total – to paint a more intimate picture. Invisible Britain was the subtitle of a 2015 documentary on deprivation and discontent in the UK, which also happened to be a tour video for the outspoken electro-punk duo Sleaford Mods. This spin-off book, edited by the film’s co-director Paul Sng, kills the music and broadens out the survey – though its tone is not quite as despairing as you might expect.

This time, rather than getting the stories himself, Sng has enlisted a team of documentary photographers to seek out diverse subjects across the UK – people, he writes in his introduction, “who are often marginalised in the media, neglected by politicians and ignored within society.” Each of the resulting portraits is accompanied by a short testimony from the person in the frame, giving us a snapshot of their life in 800 words or less.

Some are directly affected by austerity, such as Emily Jones in Doncaster who has lost her disability allowance and must undergo labyrinthine assessments to reclaim it, despite suffering from severe anxiety. Or Jay Ryan, a survivor of domestic abuse in Monmouthshire, who fears her job as a mentor to fellow survivors will be axed in the next round of cutbacks.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emily Jones from Doncaster. Photograph: Les Monaghan

Others, less obviously precarious, reflect more broadly on social changes in Britain. “People were a lot more racist to your face back in the 70s and 80s,” recalls Myles Evans-Reid, a young man of Jamaican heritage living in Handsworth. “Now, it’s the same thing, just covered up with a smile.”

Not every report here conforms to expectations. Avi Thandi, the child of Asian immigrants, believes that “we’ve had too much immigration in this country for too long”. Wieslaw Lubecki, recently arrived in Edinburgh from Poland, meanwhile, insists that he has “never felt as respected as a human being as I do here”.

Britain’s exit from the EU looms large in the book, though its editor refuses to privilege either side of the debate. In Peckham, a woman named Craig Dodds, posing in front of a vintage cocktail cabinet decked out with union jacks, introduces herself with the words “I love Brexit: I voted for it.”

“There are many voices here, multiple, contradictory points of view,” writes the actor Michael Sheen in his foreword. “There are… things I disagreed with and things that are hard to accept. They get to speak for themselves, and be seen as they are.”

UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says Read more

This diversity of opinions is vital, adding nuance and complexity to a book that might otherwise read as straight propaganda. There is, however, no disagreement whatsoever over the damage that the Tories’ core economic policies have wrought since 2010.

In his UN report, decrying the “great misery” caused by austerity in the UK, Philip Alston added: “I have also seen tremendous resilience, strength and generosity, with neighbours supporting one another, councils seeking creative solutions, and charities stepping in to fill holes in government services.”

This resonates throughout Invisible Britain. Many of those featured here could be seen as victims – of racism, sexism, transphobia, class discrimination and simple bad luck, as well as cuts to social services – but few would describe themselves as such. Instead, they tell stories of defiance and hope, of hitting rock bottom and clawing their way back up, and then – in more than a few cases – helping others to do the same.

• Invisible Britain: Portraits of Hope and Resilience, edited by Paul Sng, is published by Policy Press (£20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99