HALF a million people are in “very deep poverty” in Scotland, with statistics showing that women and ethnic minorities are disproportionately at risk.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s (JRF) State of the Nation study highlighted the scourge of in-work poverty and its disproportionate effects.

About 70 per cent of those “trapped in persistent low pay” were women, while ethnic minorities were three times more likely to be enduring in-work poverty than white workers and a staggering 60 per cent of children in poverty had at least one parent working.