Half a million more working adults now live in poverty than five years ago, with a similar rise in the figure for children

A record number of adults are living in poverty in Britain despite having a job as rising levels of employment are offset by high housing costs, low pay and a squeeze on benefits, according to a new report.

The analysis, published by the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation charity, said that there were almost four million working adults whose low incomes put them below the poverty line, about 500,000 more than five years ago. There has been an almost identical rise in the number of children growing up in poverty over the same period, the study said.

The report threatens to reopen a controversy that erupted last month when Philip Alston, a United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, undertook a fact-finding visit