How number of workless families has fallen by 1m

THE number of workless households has fallen by more than a million since the Tories came to power and now stands at a record low, figures show.

Fewer than one in ten children now live in families which are wholly dependent on welfare benefits – the first time the proportion has dropped below that figure.

There are now 750,000 fewer children living in homes where no one has a job than in 2010 – when there were close to two million children in workless families.

in the same period, the number of households where no one works fell by 1.1million to a low of just over 2.8million, according to the Office for national

Statistics (ONS). Fewer than one in seven families now live on benefits, down from nearly one in five nine years ago.

The figures, calculated from the largescale ONS Labour Force Survey, were hailed as evidence of a turnaround in the fortunes of millions of families by the Conservatives, whose benefit reforms encouraged those without work to find jobs.

Labour has pledged to reverse benefit reforms brought in by the Tories.

iain duncan Smith, former Work and Pensions Secretary who introduced the changes, said: ‘The reforms we introduced have led to fewer children in workless households and more families in work.’

Former Tory Brexit Secretary david davis said: ‘Employment is the route out of poverty but it also improves the entire environment that children grow up in.’

The resolution Foundation think-tank claimed this week that nearly 30 per cent of children live in poverty.