No longer 'managing': The rise of working poverty and fixing Britain's broken social settlement

Article

In this paper we trace the emergence of a poorly understood social challenge and one which symbolises Britain’s broken ‘social settlement’: the continued rise in working poverty since the beginning of this century.

Our welfare system is built on the notion that work is the main route out of poverty and this government has promised to ‘level up’ opportunity through skills, jobs and economic growth. Yet for increasing numbers of working families around the country, the promise of social mobility through ‘hard work’ as a route out of poverty alone is failing to deliver.

We argue for greater priority to be given in welfare and economic policy to bringing down the high costs of housing, childcare and other essential goods as a proportion of household income, as well as reforms to genuinely ‘make work pay’.

Related items

  1. Towards a Communities Agenda 2.0

    Andy Burnham’s arrival in Downing Street creates an opportunity to go much further on the communities agenda than we’ve seen up to now. So what should more ambition look like in practice?
  2. Young male delivery cyclist working part-time, riding through city streets with food backpack on.

    Raising the bar: Strengthening living standards while banning exploitative zero-hours contracts

    Labour’s manifesto committed to banning exploitative zero-hours contracts as part of sweeping upgrades to workers’ rights.
  3. The Bank of England is watched over by a statue of the Duke of Wellington seated on his horse

    Beyond headroom: Why we need a better fiscal framework to fix the UK’s long term problems

    There has been long-standing debate about the UK’s fiscal rules and fiscal framework.