BRITAIN’S child poverty crisis shows no signs of ending as the country’s wealth gap grows even wider with the poor “bearing the brunt” of benefit cuts, economists warned yesterday.

New research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) revealed that poorer households were now facing five years of zero growth in incomes, while Britain’s highest earners will enjoy a wealth growth of 2.3 per cent a year above inflation. 

The report’s author James Browne said: “Following an historically slow recovery in living standards after the recession, stronger growth in household incomes at all income levels over the last two years will have been welcome news.