The UK now has the highest proportion of working families since records began, according to recently released figures. Almost 90% now have at least one adult who is in employment, with the biggest increase among single parents. When records started in 1996, just 47% of lone-parent families were classed as working. This has now increased to 66%. Iain Duncan Smith welcomed the figures as proof that reforms introduced by the government are working. The work and pensions secretary said: “The benefits system this government inherited was broken, often trapping the very people it was designed to help in cycles of worklessness and welfare dependency. We are reforming the system so that people are given the skills as well as the opportunities to get into work, with Universal Credit meaning that they can take employment safe in the knowledge that they will be better off than they would be on benefits.”