While the elderly and the unemployed used to be at the greatest risk of poverty, it is now the young and those in work who are most vulnerable, a new report has claimed. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) says there has been a big fall in pensioner poverty over the last decade. At the same time there has been a rise in the number of adults under 25 who are hard up - and in the working poor. But the government said poverty was now at its lowest levels since the 1980s. The report, written for the JRF by the New Policy Institute, says there has been a "vast increase" in insecure work, such as zero-hours contracts, and low-paid self-employment. In total, it claims there are around 1.4 million contracts that do not guarantee a minimum number of hours of work. As a result, two-thirds of people who found work last year are paid less than the Living Wage, it says.

'High costs'

There has been some good news though. The report acknowledges that pensioner poverty has fallen significantly, and the employment rate across the UK is close to its historic high. But incomes are lower, on average, than ten years ago. Men in full-time work have seen their real-term salaries drop from £13.90 an hour in 2008, to £12.90 in 2013......Read more here