You read articles like this and you understand why you see news reports about 3 generations of a family sharing a council flat, no member of which has ever worked a day in their lives.
Proof that work just doesn’t pay: Child poverty among unemployed families is falling … but increasing in working homes
Child poverty is rising among working families while generous benefits cut it for the unemployed, a report has revealed. The study by the respected Joseph Rowntree Foundation is an indictment of Labour’s record in power – and casts doubt on the Coalition’s ability to deliver its pledge to ‘make work pay’. It reveals that while the policy of lavishing benefits on the unemployed has helped tackle some aspects of child poverty, many working families have fallen behind. Child poverty in workless families fell in 2008/9 to 1.6million, despite the impact of the recession. But during the same period child poverty among working families rose to 2.1million – the highest on record.
The figures continue a trend that began five years ago and mean that 58 per cent of children in poverty now live in homes where at least one parent works. Tom MacInnes, co-author of the report, said ‘substantial’ increases in benefits had helped drag many children in workless homes above the poverty line. But he said there had been too little focus on the children of people in low-paid jobs. ‘The figures suggest that something is going wrong for people in this group – it is disappointing. It demonstrates that work alone is not always a route out of poverty,’ he said.