The number of people who are in work but still living in relative poverty has risen according to a report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The report, written for the ITS by research economist Xiaowei Xu, found that between the mid-nineties and 2017 the percentage of households living in-work poverty rose from 13% to 18%.
The report's author describes the rise in working households living in poverty as being the result of 'complex trends', these include high housing costs and rising incomes for pensioners pushing up the line for relative poverty.
The report found that individuals are still, broadly better off in work and that material poverty, being unable to afford basic expenses had declined over the period covered.
These limited gains are overshadowed by increased incomes inequality pushing 600,000 more people into poverty and high private rents and changes to the benefits system since 2010 putting pressure on low income households.
Senior research economist for the IFS Tom Waters said that although the report suggests overall levels of material deprivation have fallen 'severe poverty is a clear policy concern, but it is hard to measure '.
He added that the report, which looked at levels of severe poverty does not 'tell us what has happened to the frequency of destitution, such as rough sleeping'.
Responding to the publication of the IFS report Campbell Robb, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation told the BBC 'our economy should work for everyone, but the rise in working poverty across the UK shows that success in increasing employment isn't always a reliable route to a better living standard'.
He added, 'our next prime minister should bring forward an ambitious plan to re-balance our economy by investing in places where low employment and widespread low pay trap people in poverty'.
Quite so, but do you think that is what we are going to get? If you do, then possess an innocence usually associated with sainthood.
One week into the business end of things and the contest between Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson to be leader of the Conservative Party and by default the next prime minister looks painfully insular.
Neither candidate has said anything of note about the inequality that overshadows not just the 'working poor', it is increasingly a nightmare that haunts people who used to think of themselves as middle class too. Instead we have had predictable promises of tax cuts for the rich and a lot of faux macho chest beating over who is or isn't brave enough to take part in one TV debate or another.
Their silence on this issue is firmly located in willful ignorance of the fears keeping so many people awake at nights in the country they aspire to lead.
They do not know and will never understand the jeopardy constraining the lives of so many people living in what members of the political class patronizingly call 'alarm clock Britain.
Whichever one loses, most likely Hunt, will stroll into a plum job in government, it's always wise to keep your friends close and your rivals even closer. If they don't fancy that they could snap up a few non-executive directorships in the City or maybe write a book. The latter will, of course be published by an old school friend and given glowing reviews by the sort of people they meet at dinner parties.
At no stage will they lie awake wondering how they're going to pay the rent or find themselves queuing up at the local food bank.
Both Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson live in a gilded bubble immune from the stresses of daily life. Its thick fabric of entitlement muffles the growing growl of discontent into a distant and easy to ignore drone.
When power becomes a toy to be passed from one member of a disconnected elite to another a county has serious problems. The UK reached that point in 2016, the Brexit vote and all the upheaval that has followed is the building up of a thunderhead of resentment against the political elite.
The resolution of the egg and spoon race to Downing Street, which to the surprise of nobody will see a white man who went to public school take the reins of power, could be the moment when it finally bursts.
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