Working more hours will not be enough to lift many families from “in-work poverty”, research by the Economic & Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found.Increasing working hours would help some low-income workers escape poverty, but a substantial share would remain below the poverty line even at full-time hours, the study by Karina Dooley has found.The study is one of several pieces of research being presented at the think tank’s Budget Perspectives 2027 conference on Tuesday.The at-risk-of-poverty rate for workers measures the proportion of workers whose disposable income, adjusted for household size, is below 60 per cent of the national median. With the median at €61,666 last year, that means families surviving on less than €37,000 a year.Around 5 per cent of workers are at risk of poverty in Ireland, the ESRI estimates. That is about 114,000 people. The majority – 74,000 – work part-time. Working more hours would help around half of these part-time workers escape poverty, bringing the “at risk of poverty” rate down to 30 per cent, it said.But it is not a universal solution, the ESRI says. Even when workers increase their hours to a maximum of 40 a week, many remain below the poverty threshold due to factors such as low wages and the number of dependents sharing household income. There are also practical constraints, the study notes, such as care responsibilities, limited availability of full-time jobs or health-related barriers, all of which make longer working hours difficult or impossible.It says reform to the Working Family Payment, which is the main welfare support for low-income working families, could achieve similar reductions in numbers at risk of poverty. The ESRI notes that just half of eligible households take up their entitlement to the Working Family Payment. If everyone eligible were to do so, it would take 29,000 workers out of the numbers working but facing poverty.A separate ESRI report, also being presented to the Budget Perspectives conference, looks at how retirement age and income is affected by membership of a workplace pension scheme.The study by ESRI researchers Siddhant Seth and Dora Tuda finds that while those with an occupational pension intend to retire earlier – 63.5 years of age compared to almost 66 – in practice both groups retire at around 61 on average. Women with no workplace pension retire even earlier – at 58.5 years of age – despite an intention to work up to 66.While retirement timing may be similar, the study found that retirement incomes differed sharply. Individuals with occupational pension coverage retired on median weekly income of €460 compared to €230 for those with no cover beyond the State pension.“Those without occupational pension coverage not only retire earlier than planned, but do so with significantly lower incomes, raising concerns about poverty and financial insecurity in older age, particularly for women,” the authors say. The study, which predates the arrival of the State’s auto-enrolment scheme, says that Ireland has historically relied heavily on the State pension as the primary source of income in retirement. And while occupational pension coverage has risen steadily in recent years, a large number of older employees are still approaching retirement without supplementary pension provision.