An alarming survey conducted by a children's charity shows that a third of Yorkshire children live below the poverty line.

The survey, carried out by Barnardo's, says that 330,000 Yorkshire children are living in households surviving on less than 60 per cent of the national average income.

Poverty is defined as those families living on less than £301 a week for a couple with two children or £223 a week for a lone parent with two children after housing costs.

Poverty has long been linked to ill-health and reduced life expectancy.

Earlier this year a survey conducted by Unicef showed the UK was at the bottom of the child poverty league table of industrial countries.

The report found two Bradford wards exceeded the national average for the number of children living in poverty, making the city one of the worst areas for child poverty in the Western world.

And an infant mortality commission for the district reported last year how 60 children a year die in Bradford in the first year of their lives.

While there are various causes for this, from birth complications, accidents and unavoidable illness, the commission said it believed child poverty had a strong bearing on the number of infant deaths.

Barnardo's says an additional £3.8 billion needs to be spent by Government if it is to meet its pledge to halve child poverty in the UK by 2010.

So far the Government is falling far short of that with latest reports indicating that it will fail to meet the target by nearly one million children.

Barnardo's Yorkshire director Peter Allinson said: "It is a fact that children growing up in poverty statistically have poorer health, have worse exam results and very frequently will fail to escape poverty in their adult lives. We need to break that cycle.

"In large cities such as Bradford there is a significant amount of hidden' poverty which many people will not see but has a massive impact on families and especially children. I think most people would be appalled if they realised the extent of this problem.

"On a practical level we are talking about children going to school without a proper breakfast or proper clothing; being unable to go to birthday parties because their parents can't afford to get them a present to give; never having a holiday. Parents constantly have to juggle and many go without to provide for their children. They are locked into a lifetime of worry.

"We are determined to keep child poverty at the forefront of people's minds and to make sure that the Government works to honour its commitment to eradicating child poverty within a generation.

"We need a combined effort but Government has a major role to play. At the moment we are merely working at the margins without tackling the core of the problem."

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