Its study Living Standards, Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2016, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, was published today at an event in central London. It highlights some significant changes to the nature of poverty in the UK.

Pensioners’ incomes have risen to the extent that they are now the least likely major demographic group to be in income poverty, after housing costs. Another crucial development is that more people are in work than ever before.

Also, the proportion of children living in a household where no-one works has fallen from nearly one in four in 1994-95 to less than one in six in 2014-15.

Subsequently, the report found the “new poor” tend to be located in houses where there is someone in work. Only one-third of children below the government’s absolute poverty line now live in a workless household. The remainder (two-thirds) of those classed as poor are poor despite the fact that at least one of their parents is in work.

A negative consequence of this change is that poor households are therefore more sensitive to labour market fluctuations than those of the past. It also means that initiatives designed to allay child poverty will be less effective if the focus remains on getting people into work.

For the poorest fifth of households today, income from employment makes up half of total income. Twenty years ago, this figure was under one-third, indicating a greater reliance on benefits and tax credits.