ONE in three children are said to live in poverty in Bolton. In Farnworth alone, 39.9 per cent of the population are living in households with incomes below 60per cent of the national average after housing costs. And this is in 2005, when almost everyone owns a car, a mobile phone and digital TV. So why are 12.4 million people in Great Britain officially living below the poverty line? Karen Stephen reports.

The way things are in 2005:

IN early 19th century Bolton, people living in poverty were fined for stealing clean water and only half the children lived to see their fourth birthday.

With the population tipping 185,274, bad housing conditions, sub-standard sanitation and a deficient diet among the poor made for a depressing picture.

Of course, it is a much brighter one today. Isn't it?

Perhaps not, if figures released by a coalition of agencies including the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) and the Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey in Great Britain (PSE) are anything to go by.

A couple with two children claiming benefit have about £178 a week to live on - yet the Government's own "poverty line" is £242 a week.

In Great Britain in 2003, 12.4 million people were living below that poverty line (that is 22 per cent of the total population of 58.8 million) - a sharp increase on the figure in 1979 when 7.1 million were recorded as living in poverty.

While poverty at the turn of the 19th century conjures up images of barefoot urchins running up and down debris-strewn cobbled back streets, the term today is measured quite differently.

There is an ongoing debate as to how figures are reached but it is usually by using the average income statistics.

The Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey describes poverty as when people lack a number of essential items or services because they cannot afford them.

This would relate to, for example, sufficient heating in the home, warm clothing, a proper, nutritious diet and access to important health services.

And it is the PSE that reveals that out of the 34 per cent of children who were classed as poor and lacking in essential items, 18 per cent lacked two or more.

In 2003, about 2.2 million children relied on the basic safety net of income support.

Another type of safety net used in one Bolton school is a breakfast club set up at Johnson Fold School in 2001.

Paul Smith, headteacher, said: "The club caters for 40 children each day - 20 per cent of our school population - and was started because many children in school had not had a proper breakfast, or no breakfast at all before they came in, and there were also many children arriving at school early.

"So a decision was taken by the governing body to set up the club."

Mr Smith said: "The club receives staunch support from local businesses.

"Warburton's bakery delivers 30 large loaves to the school doors each week and Greggs help financially so we can buy fruit, cereals and milk.

"Also, we have a fantastic group of parents who serve the breakfasts."

While steps are being taken on a local level to help children from low-income homes, child policy experts and campaigners warn that much more has to be done if the government is to reach its goal of eradicating the problem by 2020.

Professor Jonathan Bradshaw, of the University of York's department of social policy, said: "Britain is moving up the league and is doing considerably better then before.

"But child poverty rates are still twice the level they were in 1979 - we've still got a hell of a job to get it back to those levels."

How they were 100 years ago:

THE following letter was sent to the Bolton Evening News, November 19, 1904:

"Sir, please give me a little space wherein to plead the cause of the poor children of this town.

We schoolmasters know how great is the poverty and consequent sufferings of hundreds of children attending the day schools.

No food, no clogs and their poor bodies barely covered with scanty clothing, how can they give their minds to their lessons?

Hunger is gnawing at their stomachs, hands and feet blue with cold and wet, no fire at home, no food, no rest.

Will your readers kindly give just one moment's thought in comparing with their own, who are well fed, clothed, housed and cared for, the poor wretches I have described?

Our only source of comfort is Queen Street Mission Dinner and Clog Fund.

Oh, if only those people in Bolton, who can give would pay a visit to the Mission Room in Deansgate some Wednesday or Friday soon and see for themselves what is being done there to feed the hungry little ones.

I feel sure funds would not be scarce, neither would any have to go away empty.

I appeal most earnestly for immediate help to this most deserving charity - open to all without distinction or creed or party.

We cannot teach children who are starving."

George Crowther, headmaster,

St Matthew's School

The letter was indicative of the times when it was the factory owners who were the only people making money from the Industrial Revolution.

Labourers were exploited and lived in horrific poverty.

In the absence of labour laws, the normal working week was 14 hours a day, seven days a week so, as a result, many children were left to their own devices - if they weren't working themselves, that is.

Children were often employed from the age of six and, as they could be paid much less than adults, they were sought after by employers. Yet far too many children died on the dangerous factory floors.

These children and their families lived in slums built by factory owners for maximum capacity rather than comfort, and multiple families shared the one apartment, sleeping and eating in shifts.

There was no plumbing and it was normal for families to share one outhouse per 100 apartments, with each apartment housing two or three families).

Disease was rampant and the death rate was appalling. By 1860, poverty in Bolton had become a public embarrassment and social reforms were beginning.

Almost 150 years on, poverty - albeit redefined - still exists.