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3 in 10 (29%) key worker households in the North West have children living in poverty, new TUC research has revealed today (Friday). The research, which uses the government definition for key workers, shows that the number of North West kids growing up in poverty in key worker households has increased by 23,000 over the past two years from 151,000 to 174,000 – a rise of 15%.

The North West has the second highest rate of child poverty in key worker households in the UK. Only the North East has a higher share of children living in poverty in key worker families.

Worse set to come

The TUC warned child poverty rates among key worker households are likely to get worse.

Ministers have announced another of year of real-terms pay cuts for key workers in the public sector. 

The union body says this will have a devastating impact on frontline workers after a brutal decade of pay freezes and cuts: 

·         Hospital porters’ real pay will be down by £200 this year  

·         Maternity care assistants’ real pay will be down by £600 this year  

·         Nurses’ real pay will be down by £1,100 this year 

·         Paramedics’ real pay will be down by over £1,500 this year

And ministers are calling for wages to be held down for key workers in the private sector too.

The TUC says the additional support announced by the Treasury this year to help families with energy bills will be offset by cuts to real-terms pay and other rising living costs.

Risk of recession

The TUC says government calls for widespread pay suppression will reduce household spending and demand as the UK teeters on the brink of recession.

The union body highlighted how at the same time key workers are being told to tighten their belts, city bonuses are rocketing.

TUC analysis published in June month revealed that bonuses in the financial and insurance sector grew by 27.9% over the last year, six times faster than average wages in the same period, which grew by 4.2%.

TUC Regional Secretary James Mckenna said:

“Our amazing key workers got us through the pandemic. The very least they deserve is to be able to provide for their families.

“But the government is locking too many key worker households into poverty.

“Ministers’ heartless decision to hold down pay will cause widespread hardship in the region.

“After the longest wage squeeze in 200 years we urgently need to get more money in the pockets of working families.

“This will help people get through this cost of living crisis and inject much-needed demand into our economy.”

Support needed for key worker families

The TUC is calling on the government to guarantee decent living standards by:

·         Raising the national minimum wage immediately. 

·         Giving all key workers a fair pay rise that meets the cost of living 

·         Funding the public sector so that all outsourced workers are paid at least the real Living Wage and get parity with directly employed staff. 

·         Boosting universal credit to 80% of the real Living Wage 

·         Significantly increasing benefit payments to children and removing the two-child limit within social security. 

Editors note

Children in poverty in key worker households by UK nation and region in 2022 

Region 

Total number of children in key worker families 

Number of children in poverty in key worker families  

Percentage of children in poverty in key worker families  

North East 

170,586 

70,311 

41.2% 

North West 

600,325 

174,495 

29.1% 

Yorkshire & the Humber 

434,335 

47,659 

11.0% 

East Midlands 

426,335 

49,150 

11.5% 

West Midlands 

396,756 

93,156 

23.5% 

East of England 

490,577 

115,563 

23.6% 

London 

661,487 

189,691 

28.7% 

South East 

811,614 

125,848 

15.5% 

South West 

362,539 

43,287 

11.9% 

Wales 

249,789 

22,285 

8.9% 

Scotland 

445,826 

37,005 

8.3% 

Northern Ireland 

146,353 

20,787 

14.2% 

Total 

5,196,522 

989,237 

19.0% 

 

- Methodology: Landman Economics combined information from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Family Resource Survey (FRS) for 2020/21 to calculate the number of children living in key worker households and how many of those households are in poverty, taking account of changes in real terms pay between 2020 and 2022 for public and private sector workers using figures from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).  

- All figures are based on household income after housing costs. Note that the 2020/21 FRS is based on a smaller sample size than previous years of FRS due to the difficulty of interviewing households during the Covid-19 pandemic, and poverty estimates are accordingly subject to higher degrees of uncertainty than in previous years.

- The analysis does include the impact of the reduction in Council Tax announced by the government in February 2022 in response to the cost-of-living crisis and the one-off grants announced by the Chancellor in May 2022.

-Under the government’s own definition of a key worker, 10.6 million of those employed (33% of the total workforce) are in key worker occupations and industries.

About the TUC: The Trades Union Congress (TUC) exists to make the working world a better place for everyone. We bring together the 5.5 million working people who make up our 48 member unions. We support unions to grow and thrive, and we stand up for everyone who works for a living. 

Contacts: 

TUC press office  
media@tuc.org.uk   
020 7467 1248  

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