Poor working conditions leads to rise in poverty for young people

Young people in work are now increasingly likely to live poverty, new research shows. The rise in insecure employment, such as a zero-hour contracts, the fall in wages and the lack of affordable housing have all played their part in leading to the increase in impoverished under-25s.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s research shows that those living in poverty are now as likely to be employed as not, and the brunt of working poverty is falling on young people. For 16-to-24 year olds, the poverty rate has risen from 25% a decade ago to 31.5% now.

Among the other shocking findings of the report were the revelations that only a third of people who have gone from unemployment into work in the last year now receive a living wage, that those who claim jobseekers’ allowance (JSA) are more likely to be punished for not attending welfare-to-work programmes than find employment through it, and that 40% of working adults now live in poverty.

Labour have pledged to tackle the causes of in-work poverty: there will be manifesto promises to build 200,000 homes a year by 2020, tackle the exploitation of zero-hour contracts and raise the minimum wage.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Miliband attacked the “zero-zero” economy that leaves society’s poorest struggling on zero-hour contracts, saying:

“Zero-hours contracts are becoming the norm in parts of our economy. Their numbers have increased to 1.4 million since this government came to power. It has left too many people not knowing how they will make ends meet from one week to the next, and unable to plan for the future.  And this government won’t do anything to stop it. But we will.”