ONE in eight workers in the UK - 3.8 million people - are now in poverty, according to the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

It said in a report that the record figure - one million more than a decade ago - was partly due to the growing housing crisis.

“A total of 7.4 million people, including 2.6 million children, are in poverty despite being in a working family,” said a spokeswoman for the organisation.

“This means that a record high of 55 per cent people in poverty are in working households.”

Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2016, an annual state of the nation report written for the independent foundation by the New Policy Institute, found that 13.5 million people, or 21 per cent of the UK’s population, was living in poverty.

It said: “The rise is being driven by the UK’s housing crisis, particularly high costs and insecurity in the private rented sector (PRS).

“The report finds that he number of people in living in poverty in the PRS has doubled in a decade, from 2.2 million households in 2004/5 to 4.5 million households today.

“Almost three quarters of people in the bottom fifth of the income distribution and living in the PRS pay more than a third of their income in rent.”

It said the economic recovery had helped to stop poverty rates from rising higher, with overall poverty levels remaining flat compared to 2010, but with growing insecurity underneath positive economic headlines Insecurity for people renting had risen since 2010, with the number of evictions by a landlord growing from 23,000 in 2010/11 to 37,000 in 2015/16.

York Press:

There is positive news in the report on economic growth and employment, with the 16-64 employment rate at the highest level ever, at 74.5 per cent, and the number of unemployed people having fallen to 1.6 million people, the lowest since 2007.

But Helen Barnard, foundation head of analysis, said the UK economy was not working for low-income families. “High rents, low wages and cuts to working-age benefits mean that many families, including working households, have actually seen their risk of poverty grow.”