HALF a million more people in Britain are “trapped in poverty” than five years ago, with a staggering 14 million living on the brink, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) reports today.

In its annual state of the nation report, the charity says that more children are now living in poverty as an increasing number of working parents cannot make ends meet.

Of the 14 million, four million are children and 1.9 million are pensioners.

The rate of in-work poverty has been rising faster than the employment rate, especially among parents, while population growth has seen child poverty soar at a rate much faster than expected because of population growth.

Nearly half of children in single parent families live in poverty compared with one in four of those in couple families, according to the report. Lone parents are more likely to be low-paid than parents in couples.

JRF chief executive Campbell Robb called the results “unacceptable.”

He said: “It means more families are trapped in impossible situations, struggling to pay the bills, put food on the table and dealing with the terrible stresses and strains poverty places on family life.

“It’s time for us to decide what kind of country we want to be. As we leave the EU, we must tackle the burning injustice of poverty and make Britain a country that works for everyone.”

Mr Robb said this could be done by taking action on housing, social security and work to “loosen the constraints” poverty places on people’s lives.

Working single mother Hazel Ratcliffe from Fife told the foundation life can feel like “a hamster's wheel.”

She said: “I am working and pushing myself so hard, but feel like I'm stuck. Most weeks I manage, but it involves rigid meal planning, then going around the supermarket with a calculator to ensure I stay within budget.”

Labour’s shadow work and pensions minister Margaret Greenwood said the report should be a “wake-up call” for the government.

She said: “There is something seriously wrong when the number of people in work in poverty is increasing faster than employment. Increasing numbers of children are growing up in poverty as their parents are unable to escape insecure work and low pay.”

Labour has promised to end the social security freeze, introduce a £10 per hour real living wage and build the affordable housing “so desperately needed” to lift people out of poverty.

Living Wage Foundation director Tess Lanning said: “It’s incredible that millions of working parents are struggling to keep their heads above water, trapped in low-pay jobs with little chance of progression.

“But as the report suggests, employers can play their part by paying workers a real living wage that covers the cost of living.”

Yet a Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said that they disagreed with the report’s findings – despite UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Professor Philip Alston saying last month that the introduction of universal credit has contributed to the steep rise of people living in extreme hardship and could easily be reversed by the government.

No 10 angrily rejected Mr Alston’s study, but Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby told the Andrew Marr show at the weekend that it was “really important for the government to respond to that [report], not to dismiss it.”