POVERTY among young people and working families in Wales is on the rise due to low salaries and shortening working hours, economists revealed yesterday.

A new report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the New Policy Institute showed that while child and pensioner poverty has fallen, Welsh workers are now poorer than they were 10 years ago.

According to the report 700,000 people — 23 per cent of the Welsh population — are living in poverty.

“Government action has helped to cut the number of pensioners and children living in poverty, but this is being balanced by a worrying rise in the number of working people who can’t make ends meet,” said JRF chief executive Julia Unwin.

Ms Unwin said that Chancellor George Osborne’s “national living wage” would help some workers to find a way out of poverty, but that for some, wage rises would not come in before they lost tax credits.

“To make work pay for everyone in Wales, we need more high-quality jobs which offer more hours and genuine career progression,” he said.

Plaid Cymru Treasury spokesman Jonathan Edwards said the Osborne Wage was not a genuine living wage.

“The UK government must also rethink its proposals to cut tax credits — something that will hit thousands of working families throughout Wales,” he said.

“Giving with one hand and taking with the other in this way makes a mockery of the Tories’ claim to be on the side of working people.”