The percentage of households who fall below society’s minimum standard of living has increased from 14 per cent to 33 per cent over the last 30 years, despite the size of the economy doubling. This is one of the stark findings from the largest study of poverty and deprivation ever conducted in the UK.
Full results of the ESRC PSE research were presented at a conference in London on June 19 and June 20, 2014.
Other key figures reveal that
- almost 18 million people cannot afford adequate housing conditions
- 12 million people are too poor to engage in common social activities
- one in three people cannot afford to heat their homes adequately in the winter and
- four million children and adults aren’t properly fed by today’s standards.
The Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom (PSE) project, led by the University of Bristol and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council [ESRC], has shown that full-time work is not always sufficient to escape from poverty and calls on the government to take action.
