Teachers in parts of our region say they are seeing more and more examples of children going to school hungry and in uniforms that haven't been washed.
An investigation into child poverty, carried out by this programme, also found that GPs are spotting a rise in cases of diseases like Rickets, which affects bone development and is usually caused by poor diet.
In the second of two special reports, our Political Correspondent Daniel Hewitt went to two schools in Lancashire where staff are struggling to find solutions to the problems of poverty: