A fifth of children living in the Cumberland council area were living in poverty last year, new figures show.

Children’s charity Bernardo’s said youngsters “can’t be happy and healthy if they are going to bed in a cold home, on an empty stomach”.

Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show 9,618 Cumberland children aged under 16 were living in relative poverty in the year to March 2023.

It meant 21 per cent of children in the area were in a family whose income was below 60 per cent of average household income before housing costs. They also claimed child benefit and at least one other household benefit.

This was up from 18.1 per cent the year before and the highest rate since comparable records began in 2014-15.

Of all the children facing poverty in Cumberland, 2,639 were below school age.

Families in relative poverty do have some money but still not enough money to afford anything above the basics.

The rising number of children in relative poverty comes at a time of increasing shortages of food at food banks across Cumbria. 

Carlisle Foodbank has continued to report a high number of adults, children, and pets using its services, receiving essential food and home items as the cost-of-living crisis continues.

Steph Humes, manager of Carlisle Foodbank, said 2023’s cost-of-living payments helped, but they’re ‘now getting to the stage where we’re running out of stock again, we’re getting so busy, and the money has been used up’.

Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: “In a general election year, nothing should be more important to our political leaders than making things better for the country’s poorest kids.

“We know that change is possible, but we need to see a commitment from all parties to scrap the two-child limit and increase child benefits.

“Anything less would be a betrayal of Britain’s children.”

Overall, there were 375,559 children experiencing poverty across the North West last year, who accounted for 26.7% of all children in the region.