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Children enjoying playing on swings
WORKING families are at greater risk of poverty than 20 years ago, new research published by the Resolution Foundation today has found.
In its new Working Poverty Out report, the think tank noted that the previous Labour government reduced relative child poverty by the equivalent of 600,000 children between 1998-99 and 2008-09, with rising parental employment playing a key role.
But, it warns, with most families in poverty now having at least one person in work, though with scope to work more (55 per cent, up from 43 per cent in 2000), supporting working families to increase their earnings should be a focus of child poverty strategy.
Plans to delay access to the universal credit health element until age 22 have triggered fierce opposition from disabled people’s groups, who warn it would deepen poverty and entrench discrimination against young disabled people under the guise of ‘encouraging work.’ DYLAN MURPHY reports
