Save the Children fears number of children living without the basics will rise as result of government policy
Ministers should draw up an emergency plan to tackle extreme levels of poverty as new research showed that more than one in four children live in penury in some major UK cities.
The figures, compiled by Save the Children, show that 1.6 million youngsters live in severe poverty, which the charity condemned as a "national scandal".
With unemployment rising and a radical shake up of the welfare system seeing �18bn wiped from benefits, the charity fears the number of children living without the basics will rise unless action is taken.
The government's survey defines severe poverty as a household with half the average income ? for a family of four this would be pay of less than �12,500 ? and also suffering from material deprivation. For example, they might not be able to pay for repairs to appliances or afford insurance.
The statistics coincide with the revelation that pregnancy rates among British teenagers are at their lowest level for almost 30 years with 7,158 under-16s expecting a child in 2009.
However, Save the Children says more than one in five children now lives in severe poverty in 29 areas of the country. The highest proportion ? 27% ? is in Manchester and the London borough of Tower Hamlets. More than 20% of children experience severe poverty in Birmingham and Liverpool.
Wales has the highest proportion of children living in severe poverty (14%), followed by England with 13%, then Scotland and Northern Ireland which have 9% each.
The charity said it was concerned that the government has proposed switching focus from traditional anti-poverty measures, based on income, to improving children's life chances. Ministers have defended the controversial move, saying they are treating the causes of disadvantage not its symptoms.
Save the Children said: "You cannot ignore incomes when tackling child poverty." It argues the government should adopt a severe poverty measure to give a true picture of the deprivation that some of Britain's 13m children suffer.
It is calling on the chancellor, George Osborne, to announce an emergency plan in the next budget to create new jobs in the poorest areas and increase financial support for low-income families.
Sally Copley, Save the Children's head of UK policy, said the government needed a way to count children in extreme poverty.
"Children up and down the country are going to sleep at night in homes with no heating, without eating a proper meal and without proper school uniforms to put on in the morning," she said.
"No child should be born without a chance. It is a national scandal that 1.6 million children are growing up in severe poverty."
Labour MP Kate Green MP, a prominent anti-poverty campaigner before entering parliament, said the report made for worrying reading, saying the "progress [made under Gordon Brown] was now reversed by the Conservative-led government's decision to go too far and too fast with deficit reduction".
She said: "George Osborne promised at his budget and spending review that his tough approach to cutting the deficit would not increase child poverty. But Save the Children is right to warn about the impact of rising unemployment, the VAT increase and unfair cuts to welfare."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/23/poverty-save-the-children
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