More than 185,000 children in the South West in poverty - charity

Jo says she skips meals every day to make sure her son, Axel, has enough to eat

More than 185,000 children in the South West are living in poverty because their parents face work barriers, a charity has said.

Action for Children also found 40,000 children were in poverty despite one or both parents working full-time.

Barriers to work included disability and care responsibilities, the charity explained.

Jo, a mother in north Devon, said she skipped meals to make sure her son had enough to eat.

The family's living costs were continuing to rise while her partner's wages and the benefits she received did not, she said.

She also said she had no breakfast or lunch each day in order to make money go further.

"As long as Axel has food in his belly, then that's all that matters to me," she said.

'Trapped in poverty'

Action for Children found England's south-west and north-west regions had the joint highest proportion of children living in "work-constrained" child poverty.

Robert Wyatt, operational director in the South West, said the charity wants to "confront the myth that work alone is a passport out of poverty".

He said "urgent reform" was needed in the social security system so that it could "tackle the barriers to work and opportunity that are keeping families trapped in poverty".

"Further research is needed into the financial challenges facing these working families so we can find more targeted and effective solutions," he added.

The charity analysed government data and found that, between 2017 and 2022, 65% of the region's 284,000 children lived in relative poverty - classed as a household income of less than 60% of the average income.

It found about 78,000 children were in poverty due to at least one parent being disabled, 12,000 where at least one child was disabled and 37,000 children were in poverty due to care responsibilities with at least one child under the age of two.