Authors of the report said the calculations are at odds with government claims that the October spending review will have no measureable impact on child poverty in 2012/13.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation chief executive Julia Unwin said: "We are very concerned about the future levels of child poverty and working-age poverty. Recent announcements by the coalition government have focused on getting people back to work, but, as all our research shows, work alone is not enough to provide long-term sustainable routes out of poverty.

"We know, for example, that more children than ever from working households are living in poverty. This research highlights the need and urgency for an anti-poverty strategy that protects and supports the most vulnerable."

Robert Joyce, a research economist and author of the report, said the projections do not bode well for the target to eradicate child poverty by 2020.

He said: "Among all children and working-age individuals, we forecast a rise in relative poverty of about 800,000 and a rise in absolute poverty of about 900,000 between 2010/11 and 2013/14. We find that the coalition government’s measures act to increase poverty among these groups slightly in 2012/13, and more clearly in 2013/14. Meeting the legally binding child poverty targets in 2020 would require the biggest fall in relative child poverty after 2013–14 since at least 1961."

Family Action chief executive Helen Dent described the government's planned changes to the welfare system punitive.

"Warm words provide no comfort for the families we work with who will be left reeling from punitive welfare changes. Low income families, already taking a thumping from food and fuel price increases, will be hit by an abysmal uprating of in and out of work benefits over the next few years.

"As an organisation supporting vulnerable families and children we can see the impact of spending cuts on the incomes of poorer households and we’re concerned the government isn’t going to keep their promise to end child poverty by 2020. We were told by Frank Field’s review that poverty isn’t about income; it’s also about the services available to support families and children. But families are being hit by a double whammy – the money in their pockets is being reduced and the early intervention services they rely on are being stripped back."

Source: Children & Young People Now