More than 1 in 5 people in the UK (22%) were in poverty in 2021/22 – 14.4 million people. This included:
• 8.1 million (or around 2 in 10) working-age adults
• 4.2 million (or nearly 3 in 10) children
• 2.1 million (or around 1 in 6) pensioners.
Poverty rates have returned to around their pre-pandemic levels, as middle-income household incomes rose at the same time as a range of temporary corona virus related support was withdrawn.
The overall level of poverty has barely moved since Conservative-led Governments took power in 2010. Poverty last fell consistently during the first half of the last Labour administration (between 1999/2000 and 2004/05). It rose in the second half of their time in power.
Before 1979, levels of poverty had been broadly flat at around 14%. In the 1980s, under the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher, there was then an unprecedented rise in poverty. This has not been reversed, meaning children have consistently had the highest poverty rates, while pensioners along with working-age adults without children now have the lowest.
In 2021/22, 6 million people - or 4 in 10 people in poverty – were in ‘very deep’ poverty, with an income far below the standard poverty line. More than twice as many (over 12 million people) had experienced very deep poverty in at least one year between 2017–18 and 2020–21.
Between 2019/20 and 2021/22, the average person in poverty had an income 29% below the poverty line, with the gap up from 23% between 1994/95 and 1996/97. The poorest families – those living in very deep poverty – had an average income that was 59% below the poverty line, with this gap increasing by around two-thirds over the past 25 years.
This is equivalent to a couple with 2 children under 14 years old needing, on
average:
• an additional £6,200 per year to reach the poverty line if they are living in poverty
• an additional £12,800 per year to reach the poverty line if they are living in very deep poverty.
Some groups of people face particularly high levels of poverty. This includes:
• Larger families - 43% of children in families with 3 or more children were in poverty in 2021/22.
• Families whose childcare responsibilities limit their ability to work – 44% of children in lone-parent families were in poverty in 2021/22.
• Many minority ethnic groups – around half of people in Pakistani (51%) and Bangladeshi households (53%) and around 4 in 10 people in households headed by someone from an Asian background other than Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Chinese (39%) or households from Black African backgrounds (42%) were in poverty between 2019/20 and 2021/22. These households also have higher rates of child poverty, very deep poverty and persistent poverty.
• Disabled people – in 2021/22, 31% of disabled people were in poverty.
• Informal carers – 28% of people with caring responsibilities were in poverty in 2021/22.
• Families not in work – more than half of working-age adults (56%) in workless households were in poverty in 2021/22, compared with 15% in working households.
• Part-time workers and the self-employed - amongst people in work, the poverty rate for part-time workers was double that for full-time workers (20% compared with 10%) and self-employed workers were more than twice as likely to be in poverty as employees (23% compared with 10%).
• People living in rented accommodation – in 2021/22, more than 4 in 10 social renters (43%) and around a third of private renters (35%) were in poverty after housing costs.
• Families claiming income-related benefits – their high poverty rates may be expected given the ‘low income’ eligibility criteria for claiming these benefits, but it demonstrates that benefit levels are frequently not sufficient to enable recipients to escape poverty.
Between 2019/20 and 2021/22, the average poverty rates in England (22%), Wales (22%) and Scotland (21%) had converged to around the same level, although poverty rates were much lower in Northern Ireland (16%).
Between 2019/20 and 2021/22, the West Midlands had the highest rate of poverty at 27%, followed by the North East and London (both 25%), Yorkshire and The Humber, the East Midlands and the North West (all 23%).
To reset social and economic fundamentals, start with the following, as suggested by Joseph Rowntree Foundation:
• help and space for people looking for work to find a secure job
• raising the basic level of workplace rights and protections
• protecting time for caring around work, while building up and strengthening the infrastructure of care services for families to rely on
• ensuring social security provides enough income to afford the essentials,
• making future pension provision more secure, by raising minimum contribution rates and establishing good options for people to use their savings to provide a secure standard of living in retirement
• helping people build up modest savings, access affordable credit, gain relief from problem debt and hold assets
• expanding access to secure homes, whether rented or owned, by building more new homes and shifting the distribution of existing homes.
The poverty levels could be addressed if the U.K. is not funding some war in the world, impose new tax on the rich and curtail unwanted expenditure on past imperial glories. For a rich king and a richer PM, this is a disgrace, especially if you see the homelessness on the streets.
Reference:
UK Poverty 2024, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 23 January 2024
