Over 100,000 South west Children Live in Poverty

Over 100,000 children in the South West are living in severe poverty, going without basic essentials including warm clothes and food.

New research from Save the Children has found that poverty throughout the UK dramatically increased even before the recession, during a boom in the UK’s economy, with an additional 260,000 children throughout the country pushed into severe poverty taking the UK total to 1.7 million.

The report also reveals that single parents and those out of work are those most likely to be living in severe poverty. Almost half of children in severe poverty were in single parent families and the same number in families claiming job seekers allowance (50%).

Fergus Drake, Save the Children Director of UK programmes, said: "Measures introduced by the Government in the last two years have managed to prevent the numbers spiralling even higher but with unemployment expected to rise there is a danger that severe child poverty will increase even further."

Save the Children is calling for government support to cover 100% of childcare costs for parents on working tax credit as well as better support for parents wanting to take part time work and more training opportunities, especially for lone parents.