Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of in-work poverty; and if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the December 2018 Joseph Rowntree Foundation report conclusion that in-work poverty is rising faster than employment.

The figures quoted by the Joseph Rowntree Trust in this report are taken from official national statistics on the number and proportion of people in relative low income published by the Department for Work in March 2018. These statistics show that the risk of being in relative poverty (before housing costs) has remained broadly stable over time; there is a 10% chance of working adults being in relative poverty (before housing costs), which has not varied by more than 1 percentage point since 2005. The data also shows that the majority of those in relative in-work poverty are those with part-time work only, single earner couples, or those in full-time self-employment. Universal Credit is designed to help by offering smooth incentives to increase hours, setting a general expectation that lone parents and partners should work (if not caring for young children or a disabled person) and by offering generous childcare subsidies.