The young and workers mostly likely to be in poverty
24/11/2014
Young people and those in work are now more at risk of poverty than the elderly and the unemployed, a report has shown.
The report was written by the New Policy Institute for The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a British social policy research and development charity, that funds a UK-wide research and development programmes. It showed that over the last decade there has been a large fall in pensioner poverty, whereas the number of people under 25 who are hard up has increased, as well as the amount of working poor.
This is due to the “vast increase” in zero-hour contracts and low paid self employment. The report showed that there are around 1.4 million contracts that do not guarantee a minimum number of hours of work. As a result, two-thirds of people who found work last year are paid less than the Living Wage.
The government has now claimed that poverty is at its lowest level since in 1980s, yet incomes are now on lower on average than 10 years ago, and the average self-employed person earns 13% less than they did five years ago, claims the report.
During the last 10 years only a fifth of low paid workers managed to move into better paid jobs.
Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree foundation said:
“We are concerned that the economic recovery we face will still have so many people living in poverty. It is a risk, waste and cost we cannot afford: we will never reach our full economic potential with so many people struggling to make ends meet.
“A comprehensive strategy is needed to tackle poverty in the UK. It must tackle the root causes of poverty, such as low pay and the high cost of essentials.”
A government spokesperson said:
"The truth is, the percentage of people in the UK in relative poverty is at its lowest level since the mid-1980s," said a spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
"And the number of households where no one works is the lowest since records began,"
Need financial advice?
If you have any personal finance questions related to this news article, then please contact our financial advisers. You can get in touch by asking a question online, calling us on 0800 092 1245, or by arranging a visit.
Share this..
Related stories
Royal Bank of Scotland doubles salary of bankers
In a move which is almost certain to cause serious problems for the UK government it has been revealed that Royal Bank of Scotland is to double the salary of many people in the bank who lost out when bonuses were reduced. This comes at a very difficult time for the UK government as we approach the next general election with banking bonuses and the banking industry as a whole still under the spotli...
Read MoreDid Alistair Darling lead Parliament astray over Icelandic bank collapse?
As the Icelandic banking saga continues with little end in sight it has been revealed that phone conversation transcripts released into the public domain show details of a chat between Mr Darling and his counterpart in Iceland about the subject of UK savers being compensated for potential losses.
The telephone conversation was reported to have been held on the 7th October and whil...
Is this the end of the free market?
Many experts believe that the events of the last 18 months could herald the end of the free market in the UK finance sector. Never before has one sector been proven to be so instrumental in the direction of an economy as the UK financial sector over the last few months. No future government in UK can really afford to give one area of the UK economy so much power and we could see the end of the fre...
Read MoreJob fears depressing consumer confidence
UK workers' confidence about the security of their jobs is at its lowest for at least 32 months, according to the Lloyds TSB consumer barometer.Just 18 per cent of the 2,000 consumers surveyed said they were more confident about job security today than they were 12 months ago â€" the lowest rating since Lloyds TSB began its barometer in November 2004.Although consumers were more upbeat on...
Read MoreGordon Brown and the British Airways headache
Gordon Brown is today under more pressure with regards to the strike action by the Unite union on behalf the British Airways employees. Despite speculation that the Unite union, by far and away the largest donor to the Labour Party coffers, would step back until after the election it was revealed that a number of international union agreements have been discussed. As a consequence it is believed t...
Read More