UK's income gap widest since 60s

[muriel_volestrangler]

Britain under Gordon Brown is a more unequal country than at any time since modern records began in the early 1960s, after the incomes of the poor fell and those of the rich rose in the three years after the 2005 general election.

Deprivation and inequality in the UK rose for a third successive year in 2007-08, according to data from the Department for Work and Pensions that prompted strong criticism from campaign groups for the government's backsliding on its anti-poverty goals.

In a further blow, the government failed to make a dent in the number of children or pensioners living in poverty after big increases the previous year. Almost 17,000 more children in England are on free school meals this year compared with last, according to government data also published yesterday.
...
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, Britain's leading thinktank on tax and benefits, said the increase in poverty in 2007-08 was due to weak income growth for the low paid. Rising inflation had also eroded the real value of state benefits and tax credits. Meanwhile, the number of working adults living below the official breadline rose by 300,000 to 11 million, with childless adults the worst affected. With financial help from the state concentrated on pensioners and the young, one in seven working-age adults without dependent children are now living in poverty – the highest ever level.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/08/poverty-equality-britain-incomes-poor

So, what was Labour for, anyway?