1 in 3 children in the UK growing up in poverty, with sharpest rise among working parents A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report found that 14 million Britons are living in relative poverty

A third of children are living in poverty as more working parents are unable make ends meet, according to a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Half a million more people are “trapped” in poverty than five years ago, it found, with 14 million people living in poverty across the whole of the UK.

Over half of those classed as in poverty are working age adults, alongside 4.1 million are children and 1.9 million are pensioners.

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The report also stated that in-work poverty had started rising in 2011/12 and is continuing to increase faster than employment.

Tide of poverty

Nearly half of children in lone-parent families live in poverty, compared with one in four of those with two parents. This is in part due to many lone parents being in lower paid jobs.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of the JRF said: “We are seeing a rising tide of child poverty as more parents are unable to make ends meet, despite working.

Life can feel like a hamster’s wheel – I am working and pushing myself so hard, but feel like I’m stuck. “Most weeks I manage, but it involves rigid meal planning, then going around the supermarket with a calculator to ensure I stay within budget Hazel Ratcliffe, a working lone parent from Fife

“This is unacceptable. It means more families are trapped in impossible situations, struggling to pay the bills, put food on the table and dealing with the terrible stresses and strains poverty places on family life.”

He added: “We can do this by taking action on housing, social security and work to loosen the constraints poverty places on people’s lives.

“We have an opportunity to fix this and ensure everyone can reach a decent standard of living – it is one we must seize to make the country work for everyone after Brexit.”

Income disparity

Dr Carole Easton, chief executive of the Young Women’s Trust, which campaigns for women on low pay, said its research had found four in 10 young women are struggling to make ends meet, with a quarter permanently in debt.

The charity is calling on the government to extend its National Living Wage, which currently only applies to those over 25, to all workers.

Margaret Greenwood, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “There is something seriously wrong when the number of people in work in poverty is increasing faster than employment.”

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman dismissed the findings, saying: “We disagree with this report, and there are now one million fewer people living in absolute poverty since 2010, including 300,000 children.

“With this Government’s changes household incomes have never been higher, income inequality has fallen, taxes are down for families and businesses, and there are fewer children in workless households than ever before, boosting their prospects in life.”