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Joseph Rowntree Foundation: UK Poverty Report 2026
Created: 03/02/2026
News/Events Category: General News
This item will show under the following categories: Children and Families Employability Health and Social Care
Joseph Rowntree Foundation have published this year's UK Poverty Report. Every year the foundation publish insights to build a comprehensive picture of the current state of poverty across the UK.
The foundation look closely at all the available information to work out who is worst affected, determine how levels have changed over time, and to see what the future prospects are likely to be.
Unfortunately, the picture painted in this year's report is not a positive one. Evidence in the report shows that progress on reducing poverty continued to flatline, continuing the trend which began just before the start of the financial crisis all the way back in 2005/06, with overall poverty being between 20% and 22% in every year since then.
Report summary
- In 2023/24 almost half of those in poverty were in very deep poverty, meaning their incomes were far below the standard poverty line. This is the highest number of people and the highest proportion on record since 1994/95.
- An improving labour market pre-pandemic did not feed into lower poverty levels, because benefits were being cut at the same time, deepening poverty.
- Low interest rates did not feed into lower housing costs because growing numbers of people were stuck in the expensive private rented sector.
- Child poverty is in chronic need of attention - poverty levels for children are much higher than for working-age adults and pensioners (and have been for the last 40 years).
- Even after the Child Poverty Strategy measures, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) forecast over 4 million children will be in poverty in 2029/30.
- In 2023/24 around 2 in every 10 working-age adults were in poverty in the UK, with about 3 in every 10 children in poverty.
- Poverty is deepening. The poorest families — the growing group of people living in very deep poverty — had an average income that was 59% below the poverty line.
- They identified eight groups with unacceptably high rates of poverty - families with children, minority ethnic groups, Muslim households, disabled people, informal carers, people in workless households, social and private renters, people claiming income-related benefits
- Child poverty rates in Scotland (23%) remain much lower than those in England (31%) and Wales (31%), similar to levels in Northern Ireland (24%). This is likely to be due, at least in part, to the Scottish Child Payment.
The foundation have outlined improvements that can be made, including re-designing economic policy, labour markets, public services, and social security.
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