New figures for 2023/24 show that 52.6% of children are living in households with incomes below the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). This is a rise from 48.6% in 2022/23.
For the first time since at least 2008/09, the majority of children are now below MIS. This means children are now more likely to grow up without what the public agree is needed to participate fully in society, than to live in households with enough.
This equates to 7.7 million children living with inadequate income in 2023/24. That is around 700,000 more children than the previous year, and 2.5 million more than at the start of the time series.
Lead author of the report, Dr Elaine Robinson, of Loughborough’s Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP), said: “It is deeply concerning that in the sixth richest country in the world, 7.7 million children are growing up in households that lack the resources they need to live with dignity.
“The impact of the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, especially in low-income households where essentials, such as food, energy bills, transport and childcare make up more of their spending.”
Children remain the group most exposed to income inadequacy, reflecting long-standing financial pressures on families.
The latest figures show stark inequalities between family types: 84.2% of children in lone-parent families (2.9 million) are growing up below MIS, compared with 42.7% of children in couple-parent households.
This gap highlights how systems of pay, benefits and childcare continue to leave lone parents particularly vulnerable, even when they are in work.
The report also said that scrapping the two-child limit will ease pressure on larger families, but it will not fix the broader problems of inadequate income on its own, which long predate the policy and reflect wider structural pressures.
“Larger families have been particularly badly hit since the introduction of the two-child limit in 2017,” said Dr Robinson.
“The scrapping of the two-child limit in the 2025 budget is welcome, but that alone will not solve the problem – more than four in ten children were living below MIS before this limit was introduced.”
The report shows that challenges extend beyond children. Nearly half of young adults aged 16–24 remain below MIS, while almost one in three single pensioners are living on insufficient incomes.
Work is not always protective: 68.5% of households below MIS include someone employed, and 59.5% of lone parents remain below MIS even working full-time.
Co-author Professor Matt Padley said: “Our analysis this year paints a depressingly familiar picture. And it reiterates the scale of the challenge facing the current government.
“We need urgent action to halt declining living standards in the UK, especially to drastically reduce the number of children growing up in households facing a daily struggle just to survive, let alone thrive.
“But the challenge extends beyond this. More than two-thirds of the households living on inadequate incomes have at least one person in work.
“Improvements in workers’ rights are welcome and much-needed, but these do little to ensure that employment provides all that households need to cover the essentials, let alone to feel part of the world around them.
“There is a real risk that unless we see concrete, rapid, and bold policy change, the remaining years of this parliament will be ones in which a growing number of households continue to struggle to meet their needs.
“The government needs to start delivering on its commitment to improving living standards for all, and soon.”
Follow this link for the full report – funded by the Joseph Rountree Foundation (JRF).
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