Investment in social security will reduce poverty this April, but progress will stall without a comprehensive set of actions for more than economic growth alone.

Insights from JRF's (GPAG) on the 2026 UK Poverty report — the real stories and struggles behind the headline poverty statistics.

Carers are much more likely to be in poverty, facing the challenges of balancing work, care, and the extra financial and physical costs associated with caring. Around 1 in 10 adults in the UK (5.2 ...

Poverty rates for people receiving support from social security are higher than those of the wider population. Since the pandemic, poverty rates have fallen for some groups receiving social security, ...

People in poverty struggle to afford enough food, particularly nutritious options needed for healthy diets. Children and lone-parent families are most affected. Food insecurity is not evenly ...

Low-income families continue to face severe hardship, frequently going without essentials and struggling to make ends meet, with damaging consequences for health and wellbeing. In October 2025, a ...

Low-income households are far more likely to hold little or no savings and face heavy debt burdens, increasing financial insecurity and hardship. Households on low incomes are disproportionately ...

Living in poverty for longer, and at greater depth, has a greater impact. Families in deep poverty, especially those experiencing destitution, struggle to afford even basic essentials. Poverty in the ...

Work is not enough to protect everyone from poverty. Rising numbers of workers are unable to escape poverty due to low incomes and insecure jobs. Among working-age adults, the in-work poverty rate was ...

Children in migrant families face high and entrenched levels of poverty. Even when their parents are working, they are far less protected from hardship. In 2023/24, 1 in 2 children in migrant families ...

Disabled people face a higher risk of poverty due to extra costs, barriers to work and benefits that often fail to provide a sufficient income. Disabled people have persistently higher poverty rates ...

Poverty rates vary across UK nations, regions and constituencies. Differences are shaped by local inequalities in employment, housing costs and tenure, benefit adequacy and access to services. Poverty ...