A DORSET charity said demand for help is “going up all the time” as new research reveals the extent of child poverty in Dorset.

Bournemouth Food Bank spoke out on new research published by Save the Children today.

It reveals 1.6 million young people live in “severe poverty”, which it measured by combining income and material deprivation.

Manchester and Tower Hamlets have the highest rate with 27 per cent, and the English average is 13 per cent.

Bournemouth has 14 per cent, Poole 13 per cent, and Dorset 12 per cent. There were no separate figures for the New Forest.

Vicki Lent, the manager of the Charminster-based Food Bank, said: “We have had an influx of people with children recently because more people are on low wages and they have been tipped over the edge.

“We offered support to one school which had a problem with children whose families couldn’t afford breakfast, and they had to sit and watch the other children eat.

“There’s a lot of poverty in the Bournemouth area that goes unrecognised.”

She said Boscombe West, Springbourne and Kinson South had amongst the highest percentages of poverty stricken children in the country.

Janice Smith, from Poole’s Hamworthy Money Advice Project, said: “People from outside the area probably don’t think there is child poverty here.

“We do a lot of work with people struggling with debts.

“If people are upset and distressed over money it’s going to effect their children too.”

Save the Children is now calling on the chancellor to announce an emergency plan to channel new jobs into the poorest areas and increase financial support for low-income families.