The State of the Nation report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission has predicted that the current decade will be the first since records began where there will not be a fall in absolute child poverty.

Since 2010 there has been a 600,000 rise of children in working households caught in a poverty trap, where the main wage earners struggle against the tide of an increasing proliferation of ‘dead-end’ low- income and high insecurity jobs.

The cause of this unprecedented rise can be attributed to coalition government policies that have promoted the mass casualisation of the UK workforce with the zero-hour contract epidemic and erosion of employment rights.

The report cites the broken link between effort and rewards, how house ownership is out of reach of many young people and the disappointing slow progress in closing the educational attainment gap between the poorest children and their better-off peers.

Devizes Food Bank alone reported that in the year ending in March 2014 the number of family food boxes given out increased by 91 per cent and single emergency food boxes by 62 per cent, compared to the previous year.

Creeping inequality, an inadequate minimum wage and precarious employment is having a devastating effect on UK income tax revenue, creating a second wave national fiscal shortfall. This has stalled any hope of a recovery in the short term from the ravages of global financial crisis.

I welcome Labour's manifesto promise to increase the minimum wage to £8 per hour, closing the gap between a living wage and the minimum wage. Paying a living wage is proven to increase productivity, reduce sickness and improve well-being.

I also welcome the promise of legislation that will curtail the zero- hour contracts. Without guaranteed hours, the push towards a living wage would be compromised.

These policies will be the foundation of a sustainable recovery for all, and not just the few. By making work pay we can decrease the welfare bill and increase income tax receipts, attacking the deficit on many fronts.

Chris Watts, Labour Prospective MP for Devizes, Lansdowne Terrace, Devizes.