Lower-income families in the UK face a potential 137-year wait for their living standards to double, a thinktank has warned. The Resolution Foundation said two decades of weak pay growth have left 13 million working-age households stuck, fuelling political unease and raising concerns about future disruption. From 1965 to 2005, disposable incomes for the poorest half of working-age families doubled, growing by an average of 1.8% per year after inflation. In the last decade of that period, income growth accelerated to 4% annually, suggesting a doubling could have occurred in just 18 years. Since 2005, however, growth has slowed sharply. Disposable incomes after taxes and housing costs have risen by just 0.5% a year for lower-income families. At this pace, the thinktank says, doubling living standards would take more than 130 years. The Foundation defines lower-income families as working-age households earning below the national median, with no members over state pension age. The group includes 13 million households, described as “unsung Britain” due to their unpaid care for disabled adults and increased workforce participation, which have not translated into higher incomes. Ruth Curtice, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said the report shows work is no longer a guaranteed route out of poverty. “Despite working harder, 13 million families across the poorest half of the country have seen their disposable incomes stagnate. Shrinking pay rises, higher living costs, and growing health and care pressures have left them struggling,” she said. The slowdown in income growth is linked to weak pay rises and cuts to working-age benefits. Average gross annual earnings for someone in a lower-income family have risen from £10,300 in the mid-1990s to £18,000 today, but nearly three-quarters of this increase occurred before 2005. The report highlights that nearly one in three working-age adults in lower-income families have a disability, compared with fewer than one in five in better-off households. Around one million in the group provide at least 35 hours of unpaid care each week to relatives or friends. While stagnant incomes have affected wealthier households as well, the impact is greater for the poor because taxes take up a smaller share of their budgets—12% compared with 31% for richer families. Council tax is a notable exception, with poorer households paying four times more as a proportion of income than the wealthiest. The thinktank warns that without stronger pay growth and support for working families, living standards for the UK’s poorest households could remain stagnant for generations, increasing inequality and political tension.