In-work poverty trends
About 2 mins
Key points
- Over half of working-age adults in poverty in 2024/25 lived in families (a single adult or couple and any dependent children) where at least one adult was working part-time or more.
- One in six working-age adults in poverty in 2024/25 lived in families where all adults were working and at least one adult was working full-time (referred to here as high work intensity families).
Poverty can affect health when financial resources are not enough to meet basic living needs, such as adequate heating for the home, appropriate clothing or adequate nutrition. Research shows that people in poverty who live in working families fare better in terms of income, material deprivation and financial stress than people out of work, but people in poverty fare worse than people who are not in poverty regardless of their work status.
The chart looks at the percentage of working-age adults in poverty in families which have at least one adult in work, each year since 1996/97. It is divided into higher and lower work intensity families. In higher work intensity families, all adults are working and at least one adult is working full-time.
- Working-age adults in families with high work intensity made up 16.5% of all working-age adults in poverty in 2024/25, which is an increase compared with 14.9% in 2021/22. In 1996/97, they made up 9.1%, which had doubled by 2019/20 (18.3%).
- Working-age adults from low work intensity families comprised 41% of working-age adults living in poverty in 2024/25 – a slight decrease from 43.7% in 2021/22. In 1996/97, they made up 34.4%, which had increased to 42.6% by 2019/20.
There are a number of explanations for the growth of in-work poverty over the last two decades. Partly, this trend reflects the fact that a higher proportion of families have a family member in work than in the past. However, there is an increased risk of being in poverty for people in work, reflecting the growth in housing costs for working families and the faster growth of pensioner incomes, which has raised the overall median income (increasing the income required to be above the poverty threshold).
- The data presented here are calculated from weighted estimates from the Family Resources Survey published by the Department of Work and Pensions.
- Poverty is defined as an individual living in a household with a net household income below 60% of the median in that year.
- Income is defined as monthly net equivalised household income after housing costs. Income is equivalised, which means it is adjusted for household size to reflect economies of scale. For example, a household of four needs more income for the same standard of living as a household of one, but not four times as much.
- Housing costs are deducted from income, to reflect that people with lower incomes in particular have fewer options for meeting their housing costs, relative to their income.
- Working-age adults are individuals below State Pension age who are over 16, not in further education and not classed as a dependent child.
- A family is defined as a single adult or couple living as married and any dependent children.
- Lower work intensity families are those where an adult is self-employed, only one adult works full-time and the other adult does not work, or those families where adults only work part-time. Higher work intensity families are those where every adult works, with at least one adult working full-time.
- Northern Ireland data are only included in the survey from 2002/03 onwards.
- Data for 2020/21 are not included in line with the Department for Work and Pensions’ guidance related to data quality during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Data for 2021/22 have also been affected by the pandemic and are subject to additional uncertainty.
- From 2021/22 onwards, administrative benefit data has been integrated with the Family Resources Survey instead of using survey benefit data. Data before and after 2021/22 are not directly comparable.
