New figures show that thousands of Bradford children are living in poverty despite at least one parent being in employment.

The statistics are revealed in a report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

The report shows that 126,000 children in Yorkshire and Humberside are living in poverty despite at least one parent bringing in a wage.

Bradford has two of the worst wards in terms of child poverty in the UK. A Unicef survey conducted last year found that this made Bradford one of the worst areas for child poverty in the Western world.

The Government has pledged to halve child poverty by 2010 but the IPPR report would suggest that it is falling far short of that target.

The IPPR has recommended that several measures be introduced as a matter of urgency including: the introduction of personal tax credit allowances; increases in working tax credits for couples, boosting the effectiveness of the minimum wage and extending the right to flexible working hours to all employees.

Kate Stanley, head of social policy at the IPPR, said: "Significant progress has been made in the last ten years in lifting nearly 600,000 children out of poverty. However, half of all poor children now live in households where someone is at work and the challenge is to ensure that work really is a route out of poverty.

"Tax credits and the minimum wage have made work pay' relative to being on benefits but these don't yet go far enough to ensure more children are lifted out of poverty. More action is needed to combine financial support and measures to boost parental employment with action to deliver fairness on pay and opportunities for progression at work."

The report's findings have led to calls by children's charities in the region for greater government action on the issue.

Save the Children, which is involved in a number of projects in Bradford, said that it believed the IPPR report had highlighted a critical issue.

Its spokesman in West Yorkshire, Kate Bratt-Farrar, said: "Poverty is the reality for over a third of children living in West Yorkshire. For many families Christmas will have meant tough choices between adequate food for their children or sufficient warmth. The public must say enough is enough and demand that the government invests the necessary £4 billion needed to meet its own target of halving child poverty by 2010".

Peter Allinson, director of Barnardo's Yorkshire, said: "The Government has made some inroads but quite a lot of children in the Bradford and Leeds areas live in families where at least one parent is working and are still in poverty.

"The knock-on effect is that children are going to school with empty stomachs and have no adequate winter clothing.

"We operate a winter clothes exchange in the Bradford and Leeds areas for a nominal fee. Recently we had a mother who put a child's coat back because it was 40p and she couldn't afford it. That is an indication of the levels of poverty we are seeing here."

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