Britain’s record on tackling poverty is 'at risk of unravelling', campaigners have warned.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) says the latest figures showing the first sustained rises in child and pensioner poverty for two decades mark a turning point for the UK.
They show almost 400,000 more children and 300,000 more pensioners are now living in poverty than five years ago and there have been increases in hardship across both age groups since then.
Very little progress has been made in reducing poverty among working-age adults, the foundation says.
Last month the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) forecast that child poverty will continue to rise until the end of this parliament.
The foundation's report, UK Poverty 2017 examines how the picture has changed over the last 20 years.
Chief executive Campbell Robb said: 'Political choices, wage stagnation and economic uncertainty mean that hundreds of thousands more people are now struggling to make ends meet.
'This is a very real warning sign that our hard-fought progress is in peril.'
