Poverty shock as kids live on benefits
Recent research found 215 wards in the North West, 46 of which are in Lancashire had high numbers of children surviving on benefits.
The 450,000 children have fewer than three meals a day.
The Gingerbread Lancashire Project, set up this month in Nelson -- but open to all residents in East Lancashire -- aims to provide lone parents with access to education, funded by the Learning and Skills Council.
North West Regional Co-ordinator for the pilot project, Steven Harding said: "We need to attract single parents who we really want to help out of the poverty bracket."
End Child Poverty director Jonathan Stearn said: "The fact that 450,00 children in the North West are living in poverty - the highest number in any part of England outside London - is a blight on the region. Such high levels of child poverty shame a prosperous country like ours."
Mr Stearn added: "We are seeing a new determination to tackle child poverty but the statistics in the North West shows what a mountain there is to climb."
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