Poverty in Wales is the "single major challenge", an official report the Audit Office has warned. It said greater numbers of people are now experiencing energy and food insecurity, adding: "The poorer you are, the greater the impact of the cost-of-living crisis is having on you."
Figures suggest more than a third of children in Wales are now classed as living in poverty, more than anywhere else in the UK.
According to the report, 34% of children in Wales were predicted to be living in poverty in March 2021.
It means that 34% of children in Wales are living in a home where the income available to that household is less than 60% of the UK average - which is how relative income poverty is defined by officials in Wales.
Those classed as falling into "in-work poverty" - where working families no longer have enough income to meet household bills - rose by 18% in Wales in 2021.
The target to eradicate child poverty in Wales by 2020 was dropped in the last Senedd term, and made one of its key recommendations a need for a "revised national strategy" on child poverty.
The report said the UK government's Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts suggest household incomes across the UK will fall in 2022-23 "by the largest amount since records began in the mid-1950s" when inflation is taken into account.
Poverty: Single major challenge facing Wales - warning - BBC News
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