No money and no hope for the British children condemned to the breadline

Often living just a few streets from affluent neighbourhoods, many of them will move through adulthood caught in a continuing spiral of debts their weekly benefits can't pay.

Despite Government pledges to break that vicious cycle and promises to halve child poverty by 2010 before eradicating the problem completely by 2020, research published today by Save the Children makes for grim reading. While the last 18 months has tipped many families over the brink, it seems their problems were building long before anyone had heard of the credit crunch.

In fact, during the boom years, when the City was handing out six-figure bonuses and when banks were giving anyone who wanted it a mortgage, an extra 260,000 children fell through the poverty net. In Yorkshire and Humber there are now 328,000 youngsters whose parents are unable to make ends meet; just under half of them live in the most severe deprivation, regularly going without basic essentials such as food and warm clothes.

It was a little over 10 years ago that Tony Blair promised to help the country's poorest families, but the targets were effectively abandoned last year as ministers unveiled a new Child Poverty Bill. Glossing over the interim target, it instead outlined new plans to instead ensure the 2020 deadline will be met.

"Efforts to reduce child poverty have not only stalled, but they have gone into reverse," says Sally Copley, Save the Children's UK head of policy and advocacy. "It's shocking at time when the country was experiencing unprecedented levels of wealth the number of children living in severe poverty – we're talking about children going without a winter coat or even having their own bed to sleep in – actually increased.

"If we don't hit the 2010 target, and we won't, achieving the ideal of ending child poverty in 10 years time will become even more difficult."

While the good times failed to benefit the country's poorest families, the economic downturn has proved the final straw for many. Described as a perfect storm, the combination of rising unemployment, high food prices and the housing crisis, has left deep scars on already deprived areas.

Many have borrowed money to pay the most urgent bills with figures published earlier this month by the Financial Inclusion Centre showing 100,000 families owe 29m to illegal money lenders. With some charging interest rates of 1,500 per cent the average amount borrowed was 288, but the average repayment was 820.

"Things are always more difficult in the run-up to Christmas, but when the New Year brought with it the worst winter for 30 years, it pushed some families to crisis point," says Fergus Drake, Save the Children's director of UK programmes.

"Heating and winter clothes are expensive and families on a tight budget simply cannot afford to keep warm. Many face a stark choice – sit in a freezing cold house or get into debt to get warm. After the cold snap, everyone is going to dread receiving their heating bill, but none more so than families who are already struggling."

Measuring poverty is not an exact since, but the yardstick used by Save the Children is households with an income 50 per cent below the

average. For a couple with one child, that amounts to 12,200 or just

33 a day to cover food, household bills, clothes and transport.

"Every child deserves a fair chance in life," adds Sally. "All are born equal and none should be left behind. The recession has had a

devastating effect with our findings suggesting it will have pushed a further 100,000 children into severe poverty.

"That has been offset, partly by changes to tax credits and benefits, but with unemployment expected to rise there is a danger that severe child poverty, which now stands at 1.7 million, will increase even further.

"These are children who don't have friends to tea, they don't have the right sports equipment and they don't go away on holiday. Basically, everything we think of as a norm of growing up has been removed. If we don't do something about it now, we are in danger of losing a whole generation to deprivation.

"I am from Bradford originally and it makes me incredibly frustrated that my home city has such high levels of child poverty. When you go to speak to kids from somewhere like the Buttershaw estate, they are incredibly eloquent about the realities of their lives and the kind of things which would make a real difference to them. What we need now is for the politicians to start listening. Constructive policies need to be delivered alongside the kind words."

While London is home to the largest number of deprived children, poverty cuts across the geographical divides. All areas in the country have between 26 and 34 per cent of youngsters living in hardship and the risk is, unsurprisingly, much higher in families where neither parent works and where educational qualifications are lacking. The report compiled by the New Policy Institute on behalf of the charity also showed that Pakistani, Bangladesh and black African children are about three times more likely to grow up in severe poverty than white children.

Save the Children is now calling for cross-party commitment to increase the availability of free childcare to help people back into work, protect services such as Sure Start and to ensure the greater resources being made under the present child benefit provision are directed towards the poorest children.

At a time when public money is short and spending cuts seem inevitable, its proposals may seem like a fanciful wishlist. However, research in the US has shown the most effective way of stimulating the economy is to put money into the hands of the poorest people. Economists have calculated that ever dollar spent on the poorest households generated a return to the economy of up to $1.63.

"There is an idea that some parents just don't want to work, but in the vast majority of cases that simply isn't true," says Fergus. "However, particularly in the case of single parents who can only take on a part-time job, they often find the work available to them is so low paid they are financially better off on benefits. This can't be allowed to continue.

"The Government has failed to focus its attention on the children who need help the most. We need support on a radically bigger scale to be targeted at those living in severe poverty so they can get back into work. Without that focus the Government will continue to tread water on tackling the unacceptably high numbers of children living in families whose lives are being destroyed by poverty.

"If the Government can find money for the banks then why can't it find money for our children. It may sound expensive, but it won't be as costly as failing millions of children."