Poverty figures render UK government numbers too little and action very late

The new approach measures average incomes and housing costs but also incudes ‘inescapable costs’, such as childcare. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

The news that more than one in three children in the UK are now living in poverty should shock everyone but surprise no one.

Nearly three years into the cost of living crisis, we know that young families and disabled people have been among those hit hardest by the biggest fall in UK living standards in half a century.