(Picture: Getty Images)

The number of working Londoners living in poverty has sky-rocketed.

Around 1.2million people living in the capital qualify as ‘in-work poor’ – an increase of more than 70 per cent from a decade ago.

The findings were published the fifth London Poverty Profile, compiled by the New Policy Institute for the charity Trust for London.

It found that although unemployment and the number of workless households have gone down over the last 10 years, London’s poverty levels have remained the same – 27 per cent.


An increase in low-paid jobs and outrageous housing costs were to blame, the report said, and cuts to working tax credits next April are set to make the situation even worse.



‘The increase in the number of people in poverty in London has been almost entirely among those in working families,’ the report says.

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The poverty threshold is defined as households with incomes of less than 60 per cent of the national median after housing costs are taken into account, consistent with EU standards.

Around 450,000 children live in these households, and research estimates that the tax credit cuts will leave 640,000 kids worse off. Child poverty in London is already at 38 per cent.

The number of low-paid jobs in London has risen to nearly 700,000 over the past five years. These employers pay less than the voluntary London Living Wage, which is currently £9.15 an hour.

(Picture: Getty Images)

Housing is another major issue. The greatest number of working poor, around 860,000, have been pushed into the rapidly-growing private rental sector.

The report highlights failures by developers and councils to meet their targets for supplying ‘affordable’ housing in the capital.

One of the report’s authors Hannah Aldridge, from New Policy Institute, criticised the government’s ‘starter homes’ initiative.

She said the homes, which are capped at £450,000 in London, ‘won’t solve the problem’.