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Loneliness, understood as the negative feeling experienced by those who perceive their social relationships to be deficient, and social isolation, characterized by the relative absence of contact with others, have recently been identified as a public health challenge in the United Kingdom. How is this social “problem” defined? Who is expected to tackle it? And how? These are the questions explored in this article, beginning with the problem as it is represented in the 2012 White Paper Caring for our Future: Reforming Care and Support. By adopting a public health perspective, we invite the reader to take a critical look at a representation that primarily frames loneliness and social isolation as problems linked to old age, symptoms of an individualistic society that is struggling to take care of its elderly population. Our aim is to shed light on the foundations, as well as to identify certain limitations, of the intervention approach currently pursued in the United Kingdom.