{"id":8194,"date":"2026-03-16T08:42:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T08:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/?p=8194"},"modified":"2026-03-16T08:42:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T08:42:25","slug":"over-4-million-working-households-now-struggling-to-afford-a-decent-life-research-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/2026\/03\/16\/over-4-million-working-households-now-struggling-to-afford-a-decent-life-research-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 4 million working households now struggling to afford a decent life, research finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>New research from Loughborough University reveals that 4.2 million working households in the UK, nearly 70% of those struggling financially, do not earn enough to afford a &#8220;decent life.&#8221; The study found that 25.3 million individuals now live below the Minimum Income Standard, a massive increase from 16.5 million in 2008. Analysts emphasize that employment no longer guarantees financial security, as stagnant wages have failed to keep pace with the soaring costs of food, energy, and childcare. This economic strain is linked to declining productivity and deteriorating mental health, as millions are forced to prioritize survival over societal participation. The findings present a significant challenge for the government, with data showing that over half of all UK households in poverty now contain at least one working person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Date:<\/strong> February 18, 2026. <strong>Source<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/cost-of-living-work-wages-inflation-costs-research-b2922166.html\">independent.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research from Loughborough University reveals that 4.2 million working households in the UK, nearly 70% of those struggling financially, do not earn enough to afford a &#8220;decent life.&#8221; The study found that 25.3 million individuals now live below the Minimum Income Standard, a massive increase from 16.5 million in 2008. Analysts emphasize that employment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":8195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-socio-economic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8194"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8199,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8194\/revisions\/8199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}