Drawing on Resolution Foundation research using data accessed through the UK Data Service, the impact team examines “Unsung Britain”—lower-income families working more but seeing limited improvements to their living standards.

Britain’s economic story is often told in numbers—growth rates, employment figures, fiscal forecasts. But those figures only tell part of the story.

A clearer picture emerges when we start somewhere more human: the lived experiences of the country’s poorer half, and the data that allows us to see those experiences more clearly.

Who is Unsung Britain?

The Resolution Foundation refers to the 13 million working-age families that make up the poorer half of the country as “Unsung Britain”.

These are everyday households—people who are working more and contributing more yet seeing little improvement in their living standards.

At first glance, the picture can look like one of progress.

From the book Unsung Britain: a portrait of the country’s poorer half, we see that employment amongst lower-income families has risen sharply, accounting for the entirety of overall employment growth over the past 30 years.

Why then, are these lower-income families described as Unsung?

Despite rising employment, the evidence shows that many of these families are not seeing a meaningful improvement in their living standards.

According to the Resolution Foundation’s Living Standards Outlook 2026, incomes for this group have grown by just 0.5 per cent a year since the mid-2000s.

What sits beneath the surface, then, is a growing disconnect. People are participating more in the economy but not seeing the benefits of that participation reflected in their own lives.

The role of data in making Unsung Britain visible

What makes this picture so powerful is that it is rooted in evidence.

In both their work in Unsung Britain and their Living Standards Outlook, the Resolution Foundation draws on the strength of the UK’s social and economic data infrastructure.

Using surveys like the Family Resources Survey, Households Below Average Income and the Wealth and Assets Survey, these two reports bring different aspects of people’s lives together, showing how wages and the cost of living have changed over time.

Their Unsung Britain book goes further by layering in additional sources—including data from Understanding Society and the Living Costs and Food Survey—to show not just what people earn, but how they live.

This includes how people work, what they spend and how pressures like housing, health and caring responsibilities change their everyday lives.

Mike Brewer, Deputy Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, said:

“Through our Unsung Britain project, we have brought national attention to the challenges facing the 13 million low and middle income households in Britain today. This research has been made possible by UKDS data, which has helped us track how the living standards story of these ‘unsung’ families has changed over the past two decades.”

A fragile foundation: when work no longer guarantees prosperity

This rich data-driven picture helps explain why the progress implied by rising employment rates don’t always match people’s experiences.

One of the key findings from their book is that, since the mid-2000s, the link between more work and higher financial security has been weakened for the families of Unsung Britain.

Slow wage growth, combined with a rising cost of living, means that work no longer brings the same benefits and sense of stability it once did.

For many people, this has fundamentally changed what work delivers, to the point where it is no longer a reliable route out of poverty.

This has been widely reflected in media coverage.

Reports in Business Standard and The Independent draw on the Foundation’s research on Unsung Britain to highlight how weak wage growth is holding back improvements in living standards and how, for many families, financial security can feel increasingly out of reach.

Housing opportunity and affordability

Housing is one of the clearest examples of how this fragile foundation plays out in everyday life. The Unsung Britain book demonstrates that home ownership has moved out of reach for many, whilst private rents take up an increasing share of income.

This reality is beginning to shape political thinking.

Speaking at the Resolution Foundation’s Unsung Britain conference, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham pointed to housing as one of the key pressures facing families.

His message was clear: without a secure and affordable place to live, everything else for Unsung Britain—from work to health to opportunity—becomes harder to sustain.

Other research by the Resolution Foundation using the Family Resources Survey, Households Below Average Income and Understanding Society reveals the challenges young people face in getting on the housing ladder.

For example, Credit where credit’s due shows that, as house price growth has far outstripped earnings growth, raising a deposit for a first home has become increasingly difficult.

This has left many would-be homeowners reliant on the ‘bank of mum and dad’ – a bank that only some are fortunate enough to be able to access.

The result is a growing divide: whilst some households can build assets, others are increasingly left renting for longer, with fewer opportunities to build financial security.

The rising cost of living

The Foundation’s work shows that, for many people, the challenge is not just how much they earn, but how far that income goes.

Essential costs—particularly energy, housing and transport—take up a growing share of the household budgets of lower income households.

This is reinforced by findings from the Resolution Foundation’s Happy New Tax Year 2026, which shows how the start of a new financial year brings a combination of tax, benefit and utility bill changes that directly influence people’s finances.

Drawing on Households Below Average Income data, the analysis highlights how uncertainty in the UK’s economic outlook, including the risk of rising energy bills, creates pressures that tend to fall most heavily on people already under strain.

This, in part, helps explain why arrears have risen so sharply in recent years.

The Unsung Britain book highlights that millions of households are now behind on their energy bills, with the total amount owed increasing significantly since 2022.

For families with little spare income, even relatively small increases in these costs can quickly turn into longer-term financial difficulties.

Work and employment rates

Work and stable employment remains central to this picture.

Recent analysis by the Resolution Foundation in their Labour Market Outlook Q1 2026 highlights major reforms to workers’ rights implemented with the Employment Rights Act.

Drawing on data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and the Family Resources Survey, the report makes an important point: rights alone are not enough, they must be enforced to make a difference.

This speaks directly to the experiences of Unsung Britain. More people are in work, and more people have those rights, but the benefits of that work remain uneven, particularly for those working in low-paid and precarious sectors.

At the same time, there are growing concerns about those who are not being drawn into the labour market at all.

The Resolution Foundation’s recent report Lost in Transition demonstrates that there is a rising number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Using data from multiple datasets—including the Labour Force Survey, Family Resources Survey and Understanding Society—the analysis suggests that health, education and labour market barriers are combining to limit opportunities for many young people.

This raises an important concern for the future.

If participation is already failing to deliver financial security and increasing numbers of young people are struggling to work at all, a new generation risks missing out on opportunities and falling further behind.

What needs to change?

As the picture becomes clearer, Resolution Foundation is also focused on what needs to change. At its core, the challenge is about reconnecting work and living standards.

For many families, working more is no longer enough to feel more secure.

Improving outcomes therefore means strengthening both what work pays and what it provides—through more reliable earnings and a stronger protection of workers’ rights—so that participation in the labour market once again translates into meaningful progress.

The Unsung Britain project therefore highlights the need to address the essential systems that shape daily life: reforming housing policy so that supply better meets demand and support reflects real rents; reducing the burden of essentials like energy and transport; and rebuilding a system of social security that keeps pace with how people actually live.

Influencing the future of Unsung Britain

These ideas are starting to influence political debate.

In the House of Lords, for example, Baroness Lister of Burtersett drew directly on the work of Unsung Britain to highlight the pressures facing people on lower incomes and to question whether current levels of social security are sufficient to meet them.

By enabling researchers to connect evidence across work, income and everyday life, the data accessed through the UK Data Service helps show how the hurdles facing Unsung Britain have changed — these families and challenges they face sit at the centre of the labour market, the economy and politics.

Their experiences, and the insights brought together by the Resolution Foundation’s research over recent months, point to a clear conclusion: an economy cannot be judged as making progress unless it delivers real improvements to the lived experiences of its poorer half.

Meet the team

(Left) Finn Dymond-Green (They/Them) is the Director of Impact at the UK Data Service.

(Middle) Eve Little (She/Her) is one of the Impact and Engagement Managers at the UK Data Service.

(Right) Sophie Gawryla (She/Her) is one of the Impact and Engagement Managers at the UK Data Service.

Comment or question about this blog post?

Please email us!