% Distribution of poor children Children who are poor living in households with given work hours as a % of all children % Distribution of poor children Children who are poor living in households with given work hours as a % of all children.
No work hours 51.1% 17.6% 37.7% 11.0%.
1-29 hours 16.1% 5.5% 12.4% 3.6%.
30 plus hours 32.8% 11.3% 49.9% 14.5%.
Total 100% 34.5% 100% 29.1%.
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The overall child poverty rate is 34.5% in 1999. About a half of these poor children are in households where nobody is in work and a third are in households where people are working 30 hours or more (full time households). So while it is true that worklessness is a major factor in child poverty, half of poor children are in households with somebody in work. The table also presents what would happen to child poverty if one could magically return work patterns back to their 1979 structure, but retains wages, demographics and benefits at their 1999 structure. Even after this difficult feat, overall child poverty would only fall to a rather disappointing 29.1%. (Note that many of the New Labour reforms had yet to come into force at this time, including the WFTC). However, note that the share of all children who are poor and living in workless households would fall from 17.6% to 11.0%. The reason that overall poverty doesn't fall so much is that poverty rises among children in working households. The share of all children in poverty and in households with full time work rises from 11.3% to 14.5%. The reason being is that these households have shifted from being workless poor to working poor. However, if one could shift these individuals into work and make this work pay then the goal of halving child poverty may be achieved. For example, if the final column of the table above shows that if work patterns could be returned to 1979 levels and those in households working 30 hours or more could be raised out of poverty then only 14.
