THE news that so many children in Lancashire are living in poverty is shocking.

More than 37,000 children are being brought up without proper heating, food or school uniforms.

The situation is worst in Blackburn where 18 per cent of all children are living in ‘severe poverty’.

These figures are based on either a lone-parent family with one child aged under 14 living on an income of less than £7,000 and a couple with two children under 14 on less than £12,500.

This does not mean that every one of these children is not being loved by their families.

But in an era when footballers earn £250,000 a week and bankers get millions of pounds in bonuses it is nothing short of a disgrace.

Save The Children is now calling on the government to address the problem by increasing financial support for low-income families by paying for more childcare costs enabling parents to work.

Given the scale of cuts the coalition is making this maybe a big ask.

But something desperately needs to be done.