Rise in number of children and pensioners in relative poverty, says report

Hundreds of thousands of children and older people have been plunged into poverty in the past four years. That’s according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, who found almost 400,000 more children, and 300,000 more pensioners, were living in relative poverty, unable to afford what the average person can. That’s the first sustained increases for 20 years. But the Government says the number of people in absolute poverty, so on the breadline, has fallen since 2010.