- Hundreds of thousands of UK parents working full-time on the national living wage are living more than £20,000 below the annual income required for a decent standard of living, a study shows.
- A single parent with two children working full-time on minimum wage faces an average annual shortfall of over £22,000 to meet basic living costs, affecting around 340,000 lone parents.
- Shortages in social housing are forcing low-income families into expensive private rentals, significantly increasing the minimum income needed to live with dignity.
- Out-of-work benefits cover less than a quarter of the income required for households without children, rising to 28 per cent for couples with children and 36 per cent for lone parents.
- The Joseph Rowntree Foundation highlighted the issue as evidence for introducing rent caps in the UK, a policy the government has indicated it will not pursue.
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