Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 8 February (HL5087), what evidence sources they are relying on to support their position that there is “clear evidence that it is in the best interest of children to be in working households”.

The Improving Lives publication has shown that workless families are considerably more likely to experience problems with their relationships, have poor mental health, and be in problem debt. The publication includes these figures:

- Children growing up in workless families are almost twice as likely as children in working families to fail at all stages of their education.

- 37 per cent of children in workless families in England failed to reach the expected level at key stage 1 (aged 7) compared with 19 per cent in lower-income working families.

- 75 per cent of children in workless families failed to reach the expected level at GCSE, compared to 52 per cent in lower-income working families.

National Statistics on the number of in-work poverty are published annually in the ‘Households Below Average Income’ publication. It is not possible to provide a robust estimate for 2020/21 due to the impact the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had on data quality in 2020/21.

Statistics for 2021/22 will be published in the next Households Below Average Income publication in March 2023.

The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, there was only a three per cent chance of children being in poverty (absolute, before housing costs) where both parents worked full-time compared with 42 per cent where one or more parents in a couple was in part-time work.