Spotlight falls on low income households

A QUARTER of all children in the UK are growing up in very low-income households, according to a new report into minimum socially acceptable standards of living.

Analysis undertaken by Loughborough University’s Centre for Research into Social Policy (CRSP) has revealed that 3.5m young people are living in households which fall below 75% of the Minimum Income Standard (MIS).

The number has risen by more than 250,000 compared to last year.

The MIS is based on what members of the public consider people need to have a minimum standard of living, which includes things like food, clothing, household bills and travel, but also provides enough for people to take part in the world around them.

It establishes a threshold below which households struggle to make ends meet.

The report, Households Below a Minimum Income Standard: 2008/09 to 2017/18, was funded and published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), and also looked at working-age adults and pensioners.