Source Joseph Rowntree Foundation Published 23rd Mar 2023
The Government’s annual Households below average income data released today provides the most comprehensive overview of poverty in the UK. The latest figures show that in 2021/22:
- 14.4 million people were living in poverty in the UK, including 4.2 million children, 8.1 million working-age adults and 2.1 million pensioners.
- Much of the reduction in poverty during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic had been reversed: pensioner poverty had returned to pre-pandemic levels (18%) and the proportion of children in poverty has also increased (from 27% to 29%).
- Over the last decade the number of children living in poverty has risen by around 600,000 – an increase of 2 percentage points. The number of pensioners living in poverty has risen by around 500,000 – an increase of 4 percentage points.
- In-work poverty remained stubbornly high: over a half of people in poverty lived in a family where at least one adult is in work (54%). Over two thirds of children in poverty lived in a working family (71%).
- Poverty rates are particularly high for certain racialised communities. Around 50% of people in households headed by someone of Bangladeshi ethnicity (49%) or Pakistani ethnicity (53%) were in poverty[1].
- A third of people living in a household with a disabled child were living in poverty (33%) – the highest level since 2008/09.
- Poverty among private renters has increased – up from 32% in 2020/21 to 35% in 2021/22. Almost half of all families with children living in the private rented sector were in poverty (46%).
Read full piece at source: JRF: annual figures show unacceptable increase in poverty
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