New analysis by Action for Children suggests 300,000 low-income families with children are trapped in poverty despite parents working full-time.
It finds that an ‘average’ low-income family where every parent is already working full-time would need to squeeze in an extra 19 hours a week to escape the breadline – equivalent to working an eight-day week.
As well as looking at the number of extra hours needed to escape poverty, the research looked at earnings. It found the average (median) low-income family where every parent worked full time would need a weekly pay rise of £168 (£8,736 more a year) to clear the poverty line – and over a quarter (28 per cent) would need to earn more than £300 extra a week (over £15,600 more annually).
The analysis also reveals:
- An estimated 41,000 low-income families in full-time work are trapped in poverty because at least one adult is self-employed with very low or even negative earnings (business losses).
- Nearly half of those in poverty working full-time are single parent families, and nearly one in five were from London.
- Low-income parents in full-time work are much more likely to be in caring, leisure and other service and ‘elementary’ roles like cleaning, as well as significantly less likely to be in professional roles than the wider population of full-time workers.
