Families in parts of Brighton and Hove are relying on handouts of bread, clothes and shoes to keep going.
As new figures are released on child poverty, charity workers in the city say the gap between rich and poor is getting bigger.
The statistics show almost 10,000 children in Brighton and Hove are growing up in poverty.
And health experts warn that breaking barriers to doctors, immunisations and later health problems are harder for children living under the poverty line.
Now experts say the picture will get even gloomier as spending cuts bite.
Variations
The figures come from a unique estimate of child poverty at a local level, published yesterday (January 9), which has shown wide variations across Sussex.
It has been released by the Campaign to End Child Poverty (CECP), which predicted an “economic and social disaster” caused by the effect on families of spending cuts.
In the Brighton and Hove City Council area, Moulsecoomb and Bevendean had the largest number of children living in poverty, at 1,581 – 42% of the number of youngsters in the ward. By contrast, in Withdean, the proportion was just six per cent.
The total number of children estimated to be in poverty in Brighton and Hove is 9,960.
Georgie Kennedy leads Brighton and Hove Parents and Children’s Group, which organises trips for children whose parents are on low incomes or benefits as well as childcare and after school activities.
She said children from poor homes face stigma growing up.
She said: “There is such a rich and poor divide. It is not fair for the children at school.
“It is not their fault. A lot of them don’t invite their friends home because they don’t have a lot to show.”
The group, which is based at Brighton and Hove TUC Unemployed Workers Centre, donates items ranging from clothes to loaves of bread to poorer families.
See a larger version of the map here.
Child poverty is usually reported on a national and regional level, based on the number of children living in households earning less than 60 per cent of the national median wage.
Social segregation
The report’s authors came up with an estimate for each local area by counting the number of households where nobody is in work and including various other benefits related to low incomes.
Alison Garnham, the executive director of CECP, said the new map showed a “socially segregated Britain”.
She said: “Child poverty costs us billions of pounds picking up the pieces of damaged lives and unrealised potential, so it’s a false economy if we don’t prioritise looking after children today.
“Targeting cuts on families will prove both an economic and a social disaster, with businesses losing billions of pounds of demand and families struggling to keep their kids clothed, fed and warm.”
Tony Greenstein, from Brighton Unemployed Centre, said parents are facing the horrendous choice between fuel, food and clothing.
But for children the social stigma can be even worse.
He said: “One of the worst aspects of poverty is that it is relative to someone else.
“If you are in one class where the majority of children are middle class or where parents are not having problems it is difficult.
“It does create stigma and we can only overcome that to a lesser extent."
Read the two-page special report inside today's Argus.
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