How many working poor parents might be able to work more?

Jonathan Bradshaw and Gill Main

19 March 2014

Paul Gregg has written an interesting blog on working poverty https://smcpcommission.blog.gov.uk/2014/03/18/working-poverty-whats-going-on/

in which he suggests that the Universal Credit rules might be used to identify the working poor who might be expected to work more. The expectation in UC is that:

·                  One adult in a couple is in full-time work.

·                  Lone parents, or the second adult in a couple:

o    Work full-time if the youngest child is aged 13+.

o    Work part-time if the youngest child is aged 5-12.

o    Are not expected to work if the youngest child is under 5 years old.

It is possible to estimate an approximate size of these groups using secondary analysis of the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data for 2011/12.

In 2011/12 17.5% of children were in households in poverty (income less than 60% median BHC). Of these 20.0% were with lone parents not in employment and 14.3% were with couples not in employment. So the rest 65.7% were working poor.  Of these, 4.3% had lone parents in full-time employment and 5.3% had couples both in full-time employment who could not be expected to work more. This leaves 90.4% of the working poor with children with a possible potential to work more.

The proportion of poor children with parents with working potential are as follows:

·         With lone parents working part-time whose youngest child is 13+=3.9%

·         With couples one adult working full-time and one part-time whose youngest child is 13+=2.1%

·         With couples one adult working full-time and one not working  whose youngest child is over 5=12.6%

·         With couples both working part-time=16.7%

The self-employed present problems because the HBAI classification is “Couple with children; one or more full time self-employed”. It is possible to identify that 41.4% of these have two adults working full-time. The rest have one adult working part-time or not at all.

·         With couple one adult full-time self-employed and one adult working part-time or not working with youngest child over 5= 6.5% (or 1.8% if youngest child 13+)

That gives a total of 41.8% (or 37.1% if 13+ for the self-employed) of children in working poor households where the adults have some more working potential.

This of course assumes the work is available. There may be other barriers to exploiting their work potential including disability or caring responsibilities. We found that 16.7% of those with work potential had an adult only with a disability, 6.8% had a disabled child only and 3.8% had a disabled adult and a disabled child. If these are deducted then the proportion with work potential would be 30.4% (or 27%).

It would be possible to obtain a more accurate assessment of the working potential using the Family Resources Survey.

The tables below provides a more detailed summary of the data.

	Households with children in the sample	%	Children in the UK	%
	6364	100	13088001	100
Equivalent income less than 60% median before housing costs	1058	16.6	2293048	17.5
		100		100
No employment	429	40.5	785871	34.3
Lone parents unemployed	283	26.7	458563	20.0
Couples unemployed	146	13.8	327308	14.3
Some employment	629	59.5	1507177	65.7
		100		100
Lone parents
Working fulltime	39	6.2	6411	4.3
Working part-time	74	11.8	146247	9.7
Of which youngest child 13+	29	4.6	58786	3.9
Couples
Couples both full-time	37	5.9	80937	5.3
Couples full-time and part- time	74	11.8	175293	11.6
Of which youngest child 13+	16	2.5	32033	2.1
Couples one working full-time one not working	152	24.2	428705	28.4
Of which youngest child 5+	78	12.4	191194	12.6
Couples both part-time	100	15.9	252671	16.7
Self employed	153	24.3	359216	23.8
Couples both full-time	66	10.5	148875	9.9
One part-time/not working	87	13.8	210341	14.0
Of which youngest child 5+	43	6.8	97226	6.5
Or 13+	Or 12	Or 1.9	Or 26728	Or 1.8
Total with some work potential		42.2 or 37.3		41.8 or 37.1

		Work intensity of household			Total
		Not working	Some work potential	Fully working
	No disabled members	55.3%	72.8%	81.5%	69.8%
	Disabled adult(s) only	29.5%	16.7%	8.7%	18.3%
	disabled child(ren) only	6.2%	(6.8%)	7.3%	6.8%
	Disabled adults and children	9.1%	(3.8%)	(2.4%)	5.1%
Total		100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Brackets indicate small numbers

Note:  This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the Social Policy Research Unit, nor of the University of York.