UK working parents fall £20,000 short of a decent living, study finds

A new Minimum Income one outlet's report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in partnership with Loughborough University, reveals that many UK parents are far from a decent standard of living, with gaps exceeding £20,000 annually. A lone parent with two children on the national living wage earns only 67% of the calculated minimum, leaving a shortfall of more than £22,000, while a two-parent household reaches just 80%, missing about £15,000.

Those on unemployment benefits receive less than a quarter of the required income, and even pensioners on the state pension fall well short. The report updates its figures to reflect the scarcity of social housing, which forces low-income families into costly private rentals, pushing the minimum income needed for a lone parent in private housing to £67,000. Darren Baxter, housing lead at the JRF, warns that rising rents undermine family stability and calls for a rent-cap, a policy the government says it will not pursue. Rental prices rose 2.6% in the year to July 2026 and are projected to climb further.