Record numbers of UK workers still living in poverty
Over one in five of the UK population live in poverty, including 8m who live in families where at least one person is in work, said the latest report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
There are now almost 4m workers in the UK who live in poverty despite having a job. This number rose over half a million compared with five years ago and is now the highest number on record.
Workers in four types of industry have particularly high rates of poverty: accommodation and food services (25%), agriculture, forestry and fishing (23%) administrative and support services (22%) and wholesale and retail (18%). This compares with a poverty rate for workers overall of 12%.
Since 2004/2005 the number of workers in poverty has increased at a faster rate than the total number of people in employment. Among these cases, the rise in number of people living in poverty who are parents stands out from the rest. A working parent is more likely to be in poverty than a working non-parent.
Overall, while 14.3m people in Britain are in poverty, including temporarily, 4.6m people, or 7% of the population, are in persistent poverty, affecting mostly single-parent families.
According to the report, lone parents are much more likely to be low paid than parents in couples and this is causing an increase in the number of child poverty with around 500,000 new cases spotted over the last five years. The total number of children living in these conditions has increased to 4.1m.
The report calls for a social security system to provide more support for low-income pensioners and families with children such as affordable housing and increasing better-paid work.
It recommends the government end the freeze on benefits and tax credits a year early next spring to anchor people against low pay and high costs. As well as helping 200,000 people out of poverty, it would increase the incomes of nearly 14m people on low incomes by an average of £270 in 2020/21.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation said: “We are seeing a rising tide of child poverty as more parents are unable to make ends meet, despite working. This is unacceptable. It means more families are trapped in impossible situations: struggling to pay the bills, put food on the table and dealing with the terrible stresses and strains poverty places on family life.
“It’s time for us to decide what kind of country we want to be. As we leave the EU, we must tackle the burning injustice of poverty and make Britain a country that works for everyone.”