The figures mean that there are around 9,100
workless households in both Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, and 5,000 in Powys.
While the rate of children in
workless households is actually an improvement from 21.1%, in 2017, Liverpool still had the worst rate of children in
workless households across Merseyside.
"Around half of children in
workless families are living with parents who have at least three potential barriers to work, such as ill health, low qualifications or lone parenthood.
Not only does worklessness reduce family income, it can lead to parental conflict and poor mental health, and many
workless families are held back by disadvantages such as problem debt, drug and alcohol dependency, and homelessness.
New figures today (6 March 2019) from the Office for National Statistics revealed that since 2010 the number of
workless households has fallen by over a million to a record low while the number of children in
workless households is down by 665,000.
The government's analysis shows children in
workless families are almost twice as likely to not reach the expected level at all stages of their education.
London has seen the greatest decrease in the percentage of children in long-term
workless households, falling 12.9% to 8.5% over the past decade.
The proportion of children in
workless households has almost halved since 1996.
The new statistics also show that the proportion of children in Scotland living in
workless households has decreased by half a point to 11.8 per cent, or just under one in eight children.
Wales' share of "
workless" households remains high.
Policy director Lily Caprani said: "A signifi-cant drop in the number of children living in
workless households is good news but, as we know from our work up and down the country, it is deeply concerning that for far too many families a move into work is sadly not a move out of poverty.
The figures showed that 1.8 million children lived in these
workless households, as did five million people aged 16 to 64.
