Number of workless households falls to a record low as a rising number of single parents head out to work
- In 1.5 per cent of households no one has ever worked
- Number of workless households now stands at 3.3million
- Rise in working 50-64 year olds and lone parents has driven down workless total
The number of workless households has been gradually declining for over two decades and now stands at an all-time low of 15.8 per cent or 3.3 million, new figures reveal.
Of the 4.5million people living in workless households, 2.1million (45.7 per cent) are aged between 50 and 54, 943,000 (20.9 per cent) are aged 35 to 49 and 667,000 (14.8 per cent) aged 25-34 and 849,000 (18.6 per cent) 16-24.
A rise in the number of single parents going out to work has helped push down the workless household figure, with 67.6 per cent now in employment compared with 48.1 per cent in 1996, the data from the Office for National Statistics reveals.
As well as general improvements in UK employment rates, it is thought that the changes may be down to previous policy initiatives aimed at getting lone parents into the workforce.
Gradual decline: The number of workless households has fallen by 684,000 since 2010, the ONS figures show
In November 2008, the Lone Parent Obligation stopped single parents with a youngest child aged 12 or over from basing new Income Support claims on their parental status.
Later, single parents with similarly aged children, who already received Income Support, were no longer eligible to claim. In efforts to slowly phase out the support, as of May 2012, the age threshold eventually dropped down from 12 to 5 years.
Childcare may have also played a factor – especially more recently. From April 2014, some single parents who claim benefits are expected to prepare for work in their child’s toddler years. All three and four year olds are now entitled to 15 hours per week of fully-funded early learning, lending a helping hand to many who can’t afford nurseries or child minders.
The report comes at a time when the recently debated Draft Welfare Reform and Work Bill proposes that this information should be put before parliament. The Bill suggests that a measure of children living in workless households is helpful, and necessary, to monitor changes in the lives of children.
However what the figures don’t tell us is whether lone parents pushing down the workless figures are in full-time or part time work, how much they earn and whether they are supported by childcare arrangements.
The number of workless households varies significantly from region to region, with the highest percentage in the North East
And while the figures boast an overall decline in the number of under 15s who are growing up in a jobless home, 1.4 million children still live in a household in which no one works.
Of all the age groups, those aged between 50 and 64 have seen the biggest change in the percentage of people in working households.
As many as 46.5 per cent now live in working households, up from 38.1 per cent in 1996. The proportion has been rising most rapidly since 2011, thanks in part to the removal of the default retirement age and a rise in the female state pension age.
There are 311,000 households where no member has ever worked - the equivalent of 1.5 per cent of UK households
Meanwhile the figures reveal the North East has the highest percentage of workless households at 22.9 per cent, while the East of England has the lowest at 11.9 per cent.
The East of England also saw the highest annual increase in the percentage of working households in the last year, up two percentage points to 60.4 per cent.
Workless households are defined as those containing adult members aged 16 years and over who are either unemployed or inactive, for example students in full-time education and those looking after a family, or early retired.
The proportion of peopled aged 50-64 living in a workless household has dropped significantly over the past five years
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