Seven million UK workers living in poverty

One in eight UK workers are living in poverty due to of a combination of high rents, low wages and benefit cuts, according to a new report.

Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, based on the latest statistics, from 2014/15, reveals a record 3.8 million people with a job are in poverty, where their income, adjusted for household size, is below 60 per cent of the median after housing costs have been deducted.

In total, a 7.4 million people, including 2.6 million children, are living in deprivation despite being part of working households, an increase from a little more than five million in 2004/05.

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The number from workless families, which includes pensioners, carers and lone-parent families, has fallen, however.

The report states that the problem is being driven by the housing crisis, especially in the private rented sector, where the numbers living in poverty have doubled to 4.5 million in a decade, reports the Daily Telegraph.

"Failures in the housing market are a significant driver of poverty," the study says. "This is primarily, but not entirely, due to costs."

Helen Barnard, the head of analysis at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "The economy has been growing since 2010 but during this time, high rents, low wages and cuts to working-age benefits mean that many families, including working households, have actually seen their risk of poverty grow," said.

"This report shows that people on low incomes cannot rely on economic growth and rising employment alone to improve their financial prospects."

There is better news on pensioner poverty, says The Guardian, with 400,000 fewer people living in poverty compared to a decade ago, despite an increase of 1.7 million more people in that age bracket.

The foundation also suggests the biggest losers between now and 2020 will be lower income families, with the poorest third likely to see incomes drop.

The research "casts a spotlight on the pressures faced by the 'just about managing' group which Theresa May has promised to help," says iNews's Nigel Morris.

The BBC's economics editor Kamal Ahmed says the study underlines May's "poverty headache" in her "quest for an economy that works for all".

He adds: "Millions of people are endeavouring to do an honest day's (or night's) work for not very much pay at all. This is the issue of our age - the sense that despite effort expended, people feel 'the system' is against them."

A government spokesman said: "Since 2010, the number of people living in poverty has fallen by 300,000 but we know there's more to do. We're increasing the National Living Wage and taking millions of people out of income tax, to make sure it always pays to be in work."