Context

Economic security is foundation to life in the UK. It means being able to afford the essentials, parents with job security and good physical and mental health, and a warm and secure home for children where they are properly clothed and eat well. However, for many families this is not what they experience and without concerted action, life looks set to get more difficult.

UK Poverty is an compendium of evidence and call-to-action produced annually by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. This was the first UK Poverty report released since the new Labour Government was elected in 2024.

The study

UK Poverty 2025 is the latest in a series of annual reports from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It brings together the most up-to-date evidence from published findings on levels and experiences of poverty in the UK and reflects on the policy context driving the findings. In this report, the evidence is structured under two thematic headings:

• Trends in poverty.
• The experience of being in poverty.

The report represents an extensive review of over 100 items of evidence from across a range of different sources. These included reports from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, official reports and secondary analyses of data from Office for National Statistics and other major Government data sets, national records, academic journal articles, industry trackers and charity press releases.

Key findings

Trends in poverty

• 21% of people in the UK were in poverty in 2022/23.
• Poverty rates remained at a level broadly similar to around 2004/05.
• However, deep poverty had increased such that the average person in poverty had an income 28% below the poverty line.
• An estimated 3.8 million people, including 1 million children, experienced destitution in 2022, more than double than in 2017.

Experiences of being in poverty

• Families with three or more children consistently had high rates of poverty (45% in 2022/23), such that 30% of children (compared with 21% of adults) were in poverty.
• Poverty rates in the latest official data were also high for other groups, including some minority ethnic groups, disabled people and workless households.
• Compared with other nations of the UK, the poverty rate was lower in Northern Ireland (17%).
• In October 2024, 44% of the poorest quintile of households were in arrears with their bills or credit commitments, 69% were going without essentials, 54% had cut back on food or gone hungry, and 7 in 10 had savings of less than £1,500.
• People living in poverty were more likely than others to report poor health, and children in poor households had poorer educational outcomes.

Points to consider

Methodological strengths/weaknesses

• This is a detailed, well-constructed and considered report based on mostly official or other reputable sources. However, there is no indication that the study used systematic reviewing methods to assure the comprehensiveness or quality of the underlying evidence.

Applicability

• The report should be of substantial interest to national, devolved nation and local policymakers, and charities and other organisations who advocate for the wellbeing of people in poverty in the UK, as well as researchers.

Relevance

• The report is timely given the change in UK Government in 2024, notwithstanding that much of the evidence is based on data collected before the election.