Study shows soaring in-work poverty risk

Cuts to tax credits should be reversed and high housing costs need to be tackled, according to researchers who say 60 per cent of UK people in poverty live in a household where someone is in work.

Experts from Cardiff University, who carried out the research, say the figure is the highest recorded. They found the risk of poverty for adults living in working households rose from 12.4 per cent to 15.7 per cent, during the 2004-5 to 201415 period.

Social policy lecturer Dr Rod Hick, who led the Nuffield Foundation-funded study, said he found that the number of workers in a household was more important than low pay in determining in-work poverty.

He said: “Low pay is one of the reasons why in-work poverty occurs, but it’s not the only reason.”