25 February 2014

Households in the UK where none of the adults has ever worked

I was browsing the DWP web site, followed a link to Helping to reduce poverty and improve social justice and found a statement
For example, there are almost 300,000 households in the UK where none of the adults has ever worked
This is actually true but it's misleading. This chart from the Office for National Statistics explains it nicely
This shows that the almost 300,000 households include Student Households and although students may have a rough time financially, they shouldn't be used to bolster statistics about poverty. The "real" figure is about 23% less than the DWP say.

For more about households with no one working (currently or ever) and the way the DWP present their statistics, see here