Growing rich-poor divide between couples

from The Guardian

Ashley Seager

Guardian Unlimited

There is a growing rich-poor divide in Britain between couples where both people work and couples where neither has a job, new research out today shows.

The Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) says that while well-qualified couples in good health are increasingly likely to bring home two pay packets, disadvantaged couples are increasingly likely to have no job between them. And more single people are out of work.

The report's author, Professor Richard Berthoud, said: "Inequality (between men and women) within couple families has undoubtedly been reduced. Yet inequality between couple families has been increased by the two-earner/no-earner polarisation.

"If part of the greater equality between husbands and wives consists of both of them having a job, another part consists of neither of them having a job. So inequality among women, and among men, may have increased."

The report, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, comes hot on the heels of government figures out yesterday showing the first increase in relative poverty since Labour came to power and the first rise in child poverty for six years.

Over the past 30 years, the proportion of adults with no direct or indirect access to an earned income has doubled from 7% to 14%. These no-earner families often depend on benefits, and have a high risk of income poverty - especially if they have children.

Prof Berthoud said his findings confirm the government's emphasis on work as the most important route out of poverty - but they also show that the long-term trend has been in the wrong direction, even when the economy has been booming.

The report shows that more people are in work now than 30 years ago but that there have been significant changes in the distribution of jobs between social groups.

Specifically, the findings are:

- Around 2 million adults who are in work today would probably not have had a job in the mid-1970s;

- Those whose job prospects have improved most are mothers, especially those with adequate qualifications, good health and a working partner;

- The number of couples who both have a job has increased. They are 'work-rich';

- There are another 2 million adults who probably would have had a job 30 years ago, but are now out of work;

- Those whose chances have deteriorated most are disabled men with poor educational qualifications and no working partner;

- There has been a steep increase, too, in the number of non-working adults without a partner or whose partner does not have a job. Most of these 'work-poor' families live on social security benefits, and have very low incomes;

- These trends have not mainly been associated with changes in the demand for labour in the economy as a whole. But there are some signs that the underlying growth in the number of non-working families may have levelled off over the past few years.