Government ministers and the press have often cited this statistic as evidence of a growing problem of "welfare dependency" in the 2000s. New research by NIESR for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation investigates what drove the substantial increase in ‘never-worked’ households between 1996 and 2005 and the subsequent stabilisation, after 2007, of the reported numbers. 

You are invited to a small, invitation only round-table seminar to discuss these findings and the broader issues they raise.