MORE than a quarter of children in Inverclyde are living in poverty, new figures have revealed.

A shocking report released this week has lifted the lid on the extent of hardship suffered in local authority areas Scotland-wide – putting Inverclyde joint-fourth worst in Scotland.

The figures, published by pressure group The Campaign to End Child Poverty, say Inverclyde has one of the higest rates of child poverty in the country.

It reveals that 26 per cent of children in Inverclyde are living below the breadline, with families struggling to pay for essentials after rent.

Councillor James McColgan, Inverclyde’s young person’s champion, says the figures are unacceptable.

He told the Telegraph: “It’s unacceptable that one child is living in poverty, I don’t think it’s right.

“It’s terrible and it’s wrong and shows we must do more locally to tackle this.” Councillor McColgan cites rising living costs and low wages for the growing hardship locally.

He said: “One of the reasons is that there are higher rents and housing costs and wages haven’t gone up with the cost of living.

“We need to tackle low pay — we should be working towards a living wage.

“The minimum wage hasn’t risen with inflation over the last few years.” The research looks at what hard-up families are left to live on after meeting housing costs in a local map of deprivation.

Glasgow comes out worst with one in three children affected, followed by Dundee West at 28 per cent and North Ayrshire at 27 per cent.

Inverclyde, East Ayrshire and Clackmannanshire come in at 26 per cent, while West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire’s levels are 25 per cent.

Councillor McColgan stressed that locally Inverclyde Council was doing all it could to help struggling and future generations to get the best start in life but more needed to be done at national and UK levels.

He said: “The council has invested in education and in resources to mitigate the impact of UK welfare reforms which have affected a lot of people really badly.

“The council on its own cannot end child poverty. We need a collective approach from everyone, the Scottish and UK Governments, to end it.

“The UK or Scottish Governments haven’t made it one of their priorities or invested in programmes to help deal with this. We are doing our best but we need more help.” The Campaign to End Child Poverty is calling on the UK government to rethink tax and benefit policies that are set to drive 100,000 more children in Scotland into poverty.

Activists are also urging Scottish and local government to ‘ratchet- up’ delivery of the Child Poverty Strategy and calling for rents to be kept down in the private and social sector.