Number of workless households falls
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Your support makes all the difference.The number of households in the UK where no one is working has fallen slightly to just under four million, official figures showed today.
There was a fall of 38,000, or 0.3%, in the quarter to June to 3.88 million (18.8%), said the Office for National Statistics.
A total of 1.84 million children lived in these so-called workless households.
The percentage of households where all adults were in work was 53.5%, up 0.5% from a year earlier.
The North East had the highest percentage of workless households, while the number of households in which no adult has ever worked was 370,000, up 18,000 from a year earlier.
The largest fall in the percentage of people living in workless households was for those aged 50 to 64, down 0.4% to 21.1%, while for those aged 16 to 24 the figure increased by 0.6% to 14.2%.
The biggest fall in workless households was driven by an 82,000 cut in the number of people classed as inactive, while there was a 37,000 increase in the numbers who were unemployed.
The percentage of children in workless households was 15.8%, down 0.3% from a year earlier. Over the same period, the percentage of children in working households increased slightly by 0.1% to 51.4%.
Employment minister Chris Grayling said: "While the slight fall in the numbers of workless households and children living in workless households is encouraging, these figures still underline the sheer scale of the challenge we face.
"Over the last decade thousands of people were simply abandoned to a lifetime on benefits, and a staggering 1.84 million children are living in homes where currently no one works.
"This is why we launched the Work Programme this summer which will give tailor-made support to help people get off benefits and get into work, while our overhaul of the benefits system will ensure that work is always the best option."
PA
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