Child poverty fears as data shows 1.1m young people are living in households where no adult has a job

• Data will fuel concerns about families struggling in cost of living crisis 
• Proportion of children in jobless families three times higher in North East 
• North East had highest percentage of children in workless households  

More than one million children are living in long-term workless households in a five-year high, figures reveal.

The data will fuel concerns about families struggling in the cost of living crisis.

The proportion of children in jobless families is three times higher in the North East than in the South East.

The proportion of children in jobless families is three times higher in the North East than in the South East (stock image)

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows 1,137,000 youngsters – 8.9 per cent – were in households last year where adults had not worked for at least 12 months.

The proportion is up 1 percentage point from last year’s total of 1,003,000.

It is also the highest number of children in jobless families since 2016, when 1,145,000 – 9.3 per cent – were in long-term workless households.

The North East had the highest percentage of children in workless households (16.8 per cent) but the South East had the lowest (5.3 per cent).

A University College London study from 2017 found that children from jobless households were more likely to have lower education, experience poverty and be out of work as adults.

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