Levels of severe and persistent financial hardship are "among the worst" in living memory, a kids’ charity warns today.
Action for Children said its crisis staff were using their own cash to feed victims’ energy meters and offering families food from their own cupboards.
It insisted the Government can do "so much more" for the worst off - and demanded a rethink on October’s £20-a-week Universal Credit cut.
The charity quoted finance officer and mum-of-two Leanne, who needed food vouchers despite working 37 hours a week and claiming UC.
She said: “I have no disposable income whatsoever.
“My electricity bill has gone from £188 to £279 a month, my council tax has gone up and I’ve had to increase my oil payments – last year they were 19.5p per litre, and now they’re over £1.23.
“Everything has gone up in the shops too – from food to cleaning products.
“Things that were £1 are now £1.25 – a 25% increase - now imagine that for a whole food shop. It was a struggle anyway, but now things are so much worse. There's no way we can survive like this, it's just impossible.
“A lot of people think foodbanks are just for people who don't work, but people who work like me need them now.
“You read the reports about energy bills reaching £3,000 by the winter – how the heck are we going to afford that?
“We literally can’t live. And my kids can’t do anything fun – I can’t afford to take them on special treats like trips to a theme park or anything, that’s simply all gone for them now.”
The charity analysed 2,354 records from its Crisis Fund grant applications between October and March, and surveyed 146 frontline staff between March and April.
It said the staff survey showed that since Chancellor Rishi Sunak axed the £20-a-week temporary UC hike last October, 73% said it had impacted the children and families they supported, with 57% saying it had a significant impact.
The temporary rise in the flagship welfare payment was introduced to help claimants through the coronavirus pandemic.
Outlining extra help to households in need, the charity said its survey showed 41% of crisis staff had to top-up families' energy meters, 17% negotiated with energy companies to help households manage bills, and 9% donated food from their own cupboards.
Almost a third of households would have struggled to feed their children without the fund - rising to 37% among families on UC.
A quarter of families said they were having to choose between eating meals or paying bills.
Action for Children’s policy chief Imran Hussain said: "The worst pain and misery of the cost-of-living crisis is being felt by children in low-income families, yet the Government is refusing to target help for these children or accept that it needs to rethink its huge cut to Universal Credit.
"The levels of severe and persistent financial hardship our services are seeing are among the worst they can remember and are robbing too many children of the bright futures they deserve.
"Whilst our crisis fund can help to relieve some of these pressures, it cannot address the underlying causes driving rising deprivation or offer a solution for families bearing the brunt of this deep-rooted cost-of-living crisis.”
Warning there was “so much more our Government can do in these tough times to prevent those with the least from continuing to suffer the most”, he added: "We desperately need a cross-government plan to reduce and ultimately eradicate child poverty in the UK.”
A Government spokesman said: "We recognise the pressures on the cost of living and we are doing what we can to help, including spending £22billion across the next financial year to support people with energy bills and cut fuel duty.
"For the hardest hit, we're putting an average of £1,000 more per year into the pockets of working families on Universal Credit, have also boosted the minimum wage by more than £1,000 a year for full-time workers and our Household Support Fund is there to help with the cost of everyday essentials."
