UK poverty rate stuck at 22% of total population- Joseph Rowntree Foundation

There are currently 1 in 5 people in the UK (14.0m) living in poverty and struggling to make ends meet, said the latest report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on Friday.

Around 14.0m people are in poverty in the UK (more than one in five of the population), split between 8.0m working-age adults, 4.0m children and 2.0m pensioners.

The report, which looked into the figures for poverty in the country, revealed that the proportion of people with a job who live in poverty increased for a third consecutive year in 2018 to reach a record high.

JRF executive director, Claire Ainsley, said Boris Johnson’s administration should “level up” incomes across the UK by narrowing the gap between the wealthiest cities and poorer regions.

“The new government has a historic opportunity as we enter the 2020s,” she said. “Past successes in recent decades show that it is possible for the UK to loosen the grip of poverty among those most at risk, but this progress has begun to unravel, and it will take sustained effort across the country and throughout the governments of the UK to unlock poverty.”

The report called for improving in job conditions and lowering unemployment, strengthening the benefits system and increasing the supply of low-cost housing.

People were more likely to be in poverty if they lived in certain parts of the UK such as London, the north of England, the Midlands and Wales, the report also found.

The lowest rates of poverty were found in the south of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the JRF said.