ALMOST a fifth of 18-24 year olds in the Yorkshire & Humber region have confessed to missing a meal due to money being too tight.

Research carried out by MoneyExpert.com showed 17 per cent admitted to going hungry, while 31 per cent said they were financially worse off than just two years ago.

The Telegraph and Argus contacted foodbanks in Bradford to see whether they had noticed this impact.

The findings delivered to us by 67-year-old Bob Moon, a volunteer at Wyke Foodbank, were truly shocking.

He pins the blame on Universal Credit being rolled out by the Government.

Mr Moon explained: "We fed 102 people at Wyke food bank including 40 children, between April and June 2018.

"Between July 2018 and March 2019 we fed 1,325, including 618 children.

"The second statistic takes in the months immediately after Universal Credit was rolled out and there's a massive difference.

"We're seeing more families and kids come down. 266 households with children turned up between July 2018 and March 2019, compared to 15 between April and June 2018.

"The government have just halted Universal Credit and we've actually seen less people coming in the last couple of months.

"But they've spent millions of pounds on the system and they won't just abandon it, so I'm sure things will get worse when they roll it out again.

"The problem is that people are often left for six to eight weeks without benefits and they just can't live like that.

"If their kids are on the poverty line, they'll struggle to access school properly and then there's the social stigma of being reliant on foodbanks.

"We've actually had someone phone up offering to provide free birthday cakes for children and families that are struggling. People are just trying to help."

Data manager at Bradford North Foodbank, Martin Butterworth, admitted that those who require their help are usually in even more dire straits than those surveyed by MoneyExpert.com.

He said: "We don't get directly involved in savings or budgeting.

"Families referred to us are in "crisis" so almost certainly don't have three meals a day or savings.

"Our role is to support them through the crisis by providing food and the total number of households we help has been stable for the last couple of years."

According to the MoneyExpert.com survey, 25 per cent of Yorkshire and Humber residents do not put any money aside for savings and those that do save just £408 a year.

The younger generation were found to save more than their older counterparts though.

Jason Smith, Savings Guru at MoneyExpert.com said: "It’s shocking to see that younger generations are skipping mealtimes just to make ends meet.

"This, coupled with a quarter of the nation being worse off financially, shows it really is time to see where you can start saving money.”