Poverty rates by type of working household

Household work status is closely related to the likelihood of the household being in poverty. This indicator focuses on poverty rates for families in London where at least one adult does some work. It shows that, on average, the fewer adults who are in work, the more likely the household is to be in poverty:

• Those where no adult works full-time but at least one works part-time have the highest poverty rate, with half of people (49%) living in such households being in poverty.
• In contrast, only 9% of people who live in households where all of the adults work full-time are in poverty. 
• In households with two adults where only one works, the poverty rate is higher for those where the other adult does not work (32%) than those where the other adult works part-time (15%). 

Poverty rates across all working households in London have increased over the last twenty years. For example, poverty rates of people in households where one or more adults work part-time have increased from 37% in 1998/99 to 49% in 2017/18.