MORE than 2,000 children are living in poverty in Winsford, a new report has revealed.

Data released by the End Child Poverty (ECP) coalition shows 21.13 per cent (14,485) of children in west Cheshire are estimated to be living in poverty – those in a family living on less than 60 per cent of median household income.

In Winsford, Over and Verdin had the highest rate of child poverty with 31.66 per cent (1,102) closely followed by Swanlow and Dene with 29.18 per cent (598). In Wharton, 26.20 per cent are living in child poverty (618).

The report says that in Eddisbury 21.94 per cent of children (3,996) are living in poverty.

In response to the figures, Antoinette Sandbach, MP for Eddisbury, said the Government was ‘completely committed’ to tackling child poverty and improving the life chances of all children.

She said: “The old income-based child poverty measures, introduced in the Child Poverty Act 2010, did not address the root causes of poverty and incentivised the Government to focus only on the symptoms.

“The Welfare Reform and Work Act repealed the 2010 measures and introduced new life chance measures to redress the problems around worklessness and educational attainment.

“By adopting this approach, the Government has been able to focus on alleviating the root causes of poverty instead.

“Since the introduction of these measures, the number of children living in workless households has decreased by 90,000, taking it to the lowest level since comparable records began.

Also, the percentage of children living in working households is at a record high of 58.7 per cent, an increase of 1.4 per cent over the past year.”

The End Child Poverty (ECP) coalition was set up in 2003 to leverage the work of a range of groups all of which shared the aim of eradicating child poverty by 2020.

The wider national figures show that some of the most deprived areas of the UK have seen the biggest increases in child poverty since the same study was conducted in December 2015.

Increases of 10 per cent in some areas demonstrate the growing crisis of child poverty in the UK, the organisation said.

Ms Sandbach said: “The latest set of figures published by the End Child Poverty group should be treated with a degree of caution, given the methodology used to generate its findings.

“Nevertheless, the figures for the constituency are still well below the official calculations made by the DWP for the north west and the UK as a whole.”

Sam Royston, End Child Poverty chairman, said: “It is scandalous that a child born in some parts of the UK now has a greater chance of growing up in poverty than being in a family above the breadline.

“There can be little doubt that the Government’s policy of maintaining the benefits freeze despite rising prices is a major contributor to the emerging child poverty crisis.

“No family in modern Britain should be struggling to put food on the table, heat their homes and clothe their children.

“End Child Poverty is calling on the Chancellor to end the freeze on children’s benefits, and to invest in interest free credit for low income families, to ensure that poverty doesn’t result in spiralling debt.”