Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2007 UK - JRF Report

The New Policy Institute of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has
produced its tenth annual report of indicators of poverty and social
exclusion in the United Kingdom, providing a comprehensive analysis of
trends and differences between groups.

It has a nice summary webpage. It can be found at:
http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/2164.asp

Its principal conclusion is that the strategy against poverty and
social exclusion pursued since the late 1990s is now largely
exhausted.

Key points

* Overall poverty levels in 2005/06 were the same as in 2002/03. Child
poverty in 2005/06 was still 500,000 higher than the target set for
2004/05.

* The unemployment rate among the under-25s has been rising since
2004, while the rate for those over 25 stopped falling in 2005.

* Half the children in poverty are still in working families.

* The number of children in working families where earnings and Child
Benefit are insufficient for them to escape poverty goes on rising.

* Overall earnings inequalities are widening.

* At least a quarter of 19-year-olds lack minimum levels of qualification.

* Not all those who want to work can do so, and disability rather than
lone parenthood is the factor most likely to leave a person workless.

* The value of social security benefits for working-age adults falls
ever further behind earnings.

* Half the poorest households lack home contents insurance, the same
as in the late 1990s when first identified by the government as a
priority.

* 1½ million children in poverty belong to households that pay full Council Tax.

* The public sector is the largest employer of low-paid workers aged 25 or over.