Welsh Poverty

 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