Child poverty risks hitting a record high by 2023-24 unless the government implements substantial changes to universal credit and other benefits, a report has found.

Stagnating incomes and “actively regressive” tax and benefits policies are set to push an extra 1 million children into poverty between 2016-17 and 2023-4, according to the Resolution Foundation.

The think tank forecasts that the majority of children with single parents, families with three or more children and households where no one is in work will be living in poverty within five years.

It calculated that four years of benefits freezes, compounded by a spike in inflation after the Brexit referendum, will leave the poorest UK households £4.4bn worse off.

Years of falling wages and benefit cuts have come at a “terrible human cost”, said TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.

“Millions are struggling to put food on the table and clothe their kids.

The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Show all 10 1 /10 The Stats: Homelessness in the UK The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Sleeping rough up 165% from 2010 The total number of people counted or estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2018 was 4,677, up 2,909 people or 165% from the 2010 total of 1,768 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK London rough sleepers up 13% The number of people sleeping rough increased by 146 or 13% in London since 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK London accounted for 27% of people sleeping rough in England London accounted for 27% of the total number of people sleeping rough in England. This is up from 24% of the England total in 2017 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 64% of rough sleeps UK nationals 64% were UK nationals, compared to 71% in 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 14% of rough sleepers are women 14% of the people recorded sleeping rough were women, the same as in 2017 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 6% were aged 25 years or under, compared to 8% in 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Thousands of families staying in temporary housing Almost 79,000 families were staying in temporary housing in the last three months of 2017 because they didn't have a permanent home, compared with 48,010 in the same period eight years before Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Reduction in families living in temporary housing before Coalition government There had been a significant reduction in families living in such conditions before the Coalition government came into power, with the number having fallen by 52 per cent between 2004 and 2010 under the Labour government AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Families staying in temporary has risen since But the figure has crept up in each of the past seven years, from 69,140 in the last quarter of 2015, to 75,740 in the same period in 2016 and 78,930 at the end of last year Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Nearly 58,000 families accepted as homeless (2018) Nearly 58,000 families have been accepted as homeless by their local council in the past year (as of March 2018), equating to an increase of 8 per cent over the last five years Getty

“The government needs to stop pretending the problem doesn’t exist and must help the many working families who can’t make ends meet.

“We need ministers to boost the minimum wage now and use the social security system to stop people being locked into poverty.”

Many families will see £2,700 wiped from their budgets by the two-child limit on universal credit while other benefits have not been raised since 2015. Meanwhile, sharp rises in prices which have eaten into already tight budgets.

Overall, the child poverty rate is predicted to soar from 20 per cent in 2016=17 to 29 per cent in 2024 without drastic changes to benefit policies, according to the Resolution Foundation’s forecasts.

Brexit-related uncertainty has also eroded real household incomes which are £1,500 lower on average than had been predicted before the June 2016 referendum, but problems have been exacerbated by “deliberate policy choices” which have compounded the impact on low-income groups, the report said.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said that the government’s continued failure to deal with child poverty undermines what the UK stands for as a country.

“More and more children are going to school hungry, having to go without a proper winter coat or living in a family who are unable to afford a decent home,” he said.

“It is within the government’s power to stem the rising tide of child poverty before it reaches a record high.”

Gordon Brown on Universal Credit roll-out and child poverty in the UK

Mr Robb singled out the government’s benefits freeze as the policy pushing the most families into hardship.

Child Poverty Action Group’s director of policy Louisa McGeehan, said: “After years of deep social security cuts we are on the cusp of a child poverty crisis which will damage both the life chances of a generation and the wider economy.”

Official figures this week showed wages were rising at their fastest pace in a decade but the Resolution Foundation’s analysis found that incomes had been “generally stagnant” since the Brexit referendum. Over 20 years from 2003-4 to 2023-24, some groups are expected to see zero income growth.

However, the economy could perform better than expected if the worst elements of Brexit uncertainty can be removed, the Resolution Foundation said.

Margaret Greenwood, shadow work and pensions secretary, labelled the report a “damning verdict on almost nine years of Conservative austerity”.

“Over 4 million children are growing up in poverty under this government and that figure is set to rise to over 5 million in the next few years,” Ms Greenwood said.