ALMOST one-in-three people in Bury live in poverty.

That's the shock claim made by Bury Anti-Poverty Action Group based on benefits figures supplied by the Department of Social Security (DSS).

And these statistics are set against a backdrop of unclaimed benefits totalling £12 million being lost to people across the borough.

Ms Nicole Ivanoff, co-ordinator of the Action Group, said: "The DSS tell us 35,333 people in Bury are in receipt of one or more Social Security benefit.

"If we add that figure to the 11,950 people it is estimated do not claim the benefits they're entitled to, together with the 2,533 presently registered unemployed in Bury, the grand total of people living on or below the poverty line in our borough could be as high as 50,000."

And she added: "Out of an adult population of 163,000, this represents a shocking 30.6 per cent of the population.

"The simple fact that one-in-three people lives in poverty in Bury must alert all those concerned to the need for a radical shift of social and economic policies and expenditure."

She says local councillors should take heed if their commitment to "promote measures to reduce the impact of poverty as a contributor to exclusion from society" is to mean anything at all.

"Improved welfare rights advice throughout the six townships must, therefore, take priority," stressed Ms Ivanoff.

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