Tough at the bottom

Low-earning parents working full-time are still unable to earn enough to provide their family with a basic, no-frills lifestyle, according to the Child Poverty Action Group.

A couple on the National Living Wage with two children would be £49 a week short of the income needed. For a single parent it was worse, with them £74 a week short of the minimum income needed.

The National Living Wage is currently £7.83 an hour for those aged over 25. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) said gains from modest increases in wages had been "clawed back" through the freezing of tax credits. Rising prices and changes to various benefit schemes had also "hit family budgets hard", it said.

CPAG's chief executive Alison Garnham said there was "strong public support" for the government to top up the wages of low-paid parents. She urged the government to use November's Budget to "unfreeze benefits and restore work allowances".

"Income from work alone is not sufficient to enable some to meet their families' needs to escape poverty and the cost of a child is substantial," she added.