LONDON: Hundreds of thousands of children in Britain are living in poverty despite having parents who are employed in full-time work, according to a study that was published Thursday.
There are almost 300,000 families with children in poverty across the UK — out of 19.4 million in total according to latest official figures — almost one in five live in London (18%) and nearly half are single-parent families (46%), according to research by the UK-based charity, Action for Children.
The study revealed that factors include low pay and job quality, ethnic background, geographic location and inescapable costs like housing and disability.
“Single parents, the self-employed, and Black and minority ethnic parents are significantly over-represented, and almost a quarter work in the health and social work sector (23%),” said the report.
It noted that within the group of low-income families in full-time work, 78% of self-employed parents earn below the minimum wage.
The findings also showed that low-income families in full-time work have higher housing costs on average, and would need to work an average of 19 extra hours per week to get out of poverty.
Action for Children recommended that a government commission conduct further research, including qualitative studies, into those families to better understand the drivers and dynamics of low income within the group and identify targeted solutions.
In addition, it suggested that the government fix the basic adequacy of social security and support families to overcome barriers to work.
