POVERTY is on the rise across the region, dealing a devastating blow to Gordon Brown’s crusade to cut the numbers living below the breadline.

The proportion of workingage adults and of pensioners living in poverty rose last year in both the North-East and Yorkshire, official figures revealed.

Meanwhile, the percentage of children below the breadline rose in Yorkshire, from 25 to 26 per cent, and remained at 28 per cent in the North-East – the highest figure of any English region.

That failure to lift children out of poverty appeared to leave the Government’s flagship pledge to halve the numbers in financial hardship by the end of the decade in tatters.

Ministers insisted they had already taken action to put their efforts to tackle child poverty “back on track” and predicted the benefits of that would be seen over the next two years.

But the Child Poverty Action Group condemned the figures as “deplorable”, adding: “Families are suffering now and need help now.”

Attacking the lack of help in last month’s Budget, head of policy Dr Paul Dornan said: “The disgraceful decision to give the poorest families less than the cost of a pint of milk for each child to help them survive the recession was a kick in the teeth.”

The criticism was echoed by Age Concern and Help the Aged, which said pensioners were struggling with high food and fuel prices, while watching their income from savings evaporate.

Meanwhile, the respected Institute of Fiscal Studies said its analysis suggested that income inequality had risen to its highest level since 1961.

The annual statistics calculate the level of poverty in each region as a proportion of the population, to give the best guide to changes in trends.

On that basis, the percentage of working-age adults below the breadline in the North-East rose from 18 per cent, in 2007, to 19 per cent last year. In Yorkshire, the rise was from 16 per cent to 17 per cent.

There was a similar picture with regard to pensioners – an increase from 20 per cent to 21 per cent in poverty in the North-East, and from 24 per cent to 25 per cent in Yorkshire.

Despite those grim figures, the Government’s greatest embarrassment centred on child poverty, where the number of children in hardship nationwide rose from 2.8m to 2.9m last year.

It leaves ministers with a near-impossible task if the target of halving the numbers by 2010-11 is to be met. It was set, in 1999, by Tony Blair - when 3.4m children were defined as living in poverty.

Beverley Hughes, the children’s minister, admitted that meeting the 2010-11 target was now “very difficult”.

But she said: “Our determination to end child poverty by 2020 is as strong as ever and we are legislating to enforce that commitment.”