Just 11% of UK children live in a home where no adult is working, says ONS, down from 20% when records began in 1996

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The number of children living in UK households where no adult is working has fallen to its lowest level since recent records began two decades ago, according to official data.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that 11% of British children lived in a workless household in 2016 – a fall of 0.8 percentage points on the previous year.

The latest drop continues a prolonged trend, with the percentage of children in workless households at its peak of 20% when modern records began in early 1996.

ONS figures show that the improvements under Labour governments after 1997 came to a halt during the deep recession of 2008-09 but then resumed under the coalition headed by David Cameron from 2010 onwards.

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The ONS said the number of children living in households where all members had never worked decreased by 18,000 to 193,000, or 1.6% of all children, the lowest number and percentage since April to June 1998.

Children in lone parent families were more likely to be living in workless households (37.2%) than those in households with couples (4.3%) or other households (9.2%), the ONS said. However, it added that the percentage had decreased by 1.2 points between 2015 and 2016 to reach a new low. When the current records began in 1996, the percentage of children in lone parent families living in workless households stood at 58.6%.

“The broad picture since 1996 is one of an overall increase in the share of working households and a declining share of workless households,” the ONS said.