EMPLOYED BUT POOR

"Child poverty within working households is rising and now accounts for 58% of all UK cases, a report has found. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report says there are 2.1 million impoverished youngsters in homes where parents are in work - up slightly on last year. Co-author Tom MacInnes said it showed work alone was not the answer to lifting people above the bread line. The Department for Work and Pensions said it was reforming the welfare system to ensure work always paid. Overall, the number of children living in poverty fell to 3.7 million, the report called Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion found. Mr MacInnes said: "With more than half of all children in poverty belonging to working families, it is simply not possible to base anti-poverty policies on the idea that work alone is a route out of poverty," he said." (BBC News, 5 December) RD