Britain Works

a post by Jane Mansour for the Child Poverty Action Group blog

Work has been the biggest anti-poverty policy of recent decades, with support delivered under banners of ‘making work pay’, and calls for people to ‘work their way out of poverty’. However, people living in poverty are increasingly likely to be working. The UK’s wage fall since the 2008 financial crisis has been unmatched by any other large economy. This will be exacerbated by the Universal Credit roll out. Families are being pushed into financial hardship and work incentives damaged, particularly for second earners, single parents and those moving into self-employment.

Whether the focus is on stagnant or falling wages, rising prices, use of zero hour contracts, self-employment, impact of automation or retailers’ warehouses – work has barely been out of the news in recent years. The last decade has seen significant changes in the way we work at the same time as systems set up to provide support through social security payments and skills training have been cut. The most effective way to increase earnings is to move jobs, but doing so requires confidence in the social security safety net. A confidence that has been eroded by cuts and conditionality.

Employers are facing a number of competing demands from consumers, their employees, Government and the wider economic impacts of policy, particularly Brexit. Some sectors are under significant pressure from new businesses with new ways of working. Flexibility and insecurity are becoming interwoven as employers defend their on-demand payment models as facilitating flexible working. But they can also lead to a lack of breaks, below minimum wage earnings and, in some cases, to court.

Just over 1 in 5 (21% or 5.7m) people are in low paid work. New polling commissioned by Child Poverty Action Group, out today, shows that 47% of working parents with an annual household income under £30,000 say they don’t have enough money to support their families. The temporary workforce in the UK is also significant. Groups disproportionately represented in the ranks of the low paid include women, young people, part-time workers, temps, those in low-skilled work, and people in the retail, hospitality and care sectors.

Changes in support systems often appear to have been conceived in a vacuum – not taking into account changes in the labour market. There is also a lack of access to training, with many low-paid workers now expected to fund their own through loans. This ‘risk swap’ combined with significant cuts to the Further Education budget has seen a fall in the number of adults accessing education and training. As the gap between the two grows, so the lives of many people with a foot on both sides of this chasm become increasingly precarious.

The Taylor Review focused on ‘good work’. While there is significant evidence of the value of work for both physical and mental well-being, the quality of that work is central - ‘bad work’ is worse for health than unemployment. There is little analysis of the types of jobs people take and their impact on poverty. Carnegie Trust and the RSA are in the process of considering what national quality measures would look like.

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