Title: The causes of poverty | CPAG
Headings: The causes of poverty
The causes of poverty
Low pay
Worklessness
High costs and inadequate benefits

Content: Many low-paid jobs offer no opportunities to progress to better work and better wages. Others are insecure, with unpredictable hours and incomes. Between 1975 and 2014, the real hourly wages of middle-income full-time employees doubled. The best paid saw their real wages rise by up to 189 per cent, while wages below the middle typically rose by only about 80 per cent. The wage difference is even wider for part-time workers. Worklessness
Since 2006, there has been a 60 per cent rise in the number of people moving repeatedly between work and unemployment. 68 per cent of children in families with no working adults are in poverty. People who are not working overwhelmingly want to work, but face barriers to employment. Principally these are ill-health and childcare, but also caring responsibilities for family members. High costs and inadequate benefits
In-work benefits, such as universal credit, are currently insufficient to overcome these labour market challenges and keep people out of poverty.