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State of the nation report: poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency in the UK

This report sets out a comprehensive assessment of poverty in the UK in 2010. The Government will use it to inform policy decisions as it advances its aims of tackling poverty and improving life chances, to ensure that everyone has the best possible chance to fulfil their potential.

The Coalition Government recognises that poverty is a multifaceted and wide-reaching problem. This report considers progress against a broad range of poverty and deprivation indicators. These include income poverty, income inequality, indebtedness, unemployment and inactivity, educational and health inequalities, family structure and community breakdown.

Key statistics

Key statistics from the report include:

• almost one in ten people live in persistent poverty, and there are 800,000 more working age adults in poverty than in 1998/99
• 1.4 million people in the UK have been on an out-of-work benefit for nine or more of the last 10 years
• an estimated 670,000 households in the UK are eligible for benefits and tax credits of over £15,600 per year
• health inequalities are higher now than they were in the 1970s
• there remains a large gap in educational achievement between children from rich and poor backgrounds, with a 39 percentage point gap in gaining 5+ A*-C GCSEs between those living in the most and in the least deprived areas
• 5.3 million people suffer from multiple disadvantages in the UK
• people living in the poorest neighbourhoods will, on average, die seven years earlier than people living in the richest neighbourhoods

Set against international comparisons, income inequality in the UK is now at its highest level since comparable statistics began in 1961, and the proportion of the population living in relative poverty is higher than in many European countries. For young people the findings are particularly alarming. In the UK, the proportion of children growing up in workless households, and the proportion of young people not in work, education or training, is higher than in almost any other European country.

Publication

• State of the nation report: poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency in the UK [PDF 1.34MB]