The welfare state safety net has been “torn apart” as more people are plunged into poverty, increasingly turning to charities for help, former prime minister Gordon Brown has warned.

       He said “bedding banks” were cropping up in communities alongside food banks, offering blankets, sheets and duvets for people struggling to pay their energy bills.

       With just a few weeks to go before an increase in National Insurance, Mr Brown said it was time to call a halt to the “economic madness“ of allowing tax rises, food price rises, escalating heating bills and real-terms benefit cuts.

       He described it as a “quadruple whammy” that will tip hard-pressed families over the edge.

       Poverty does not end, but goes on day after day, heartbreaking and cruel even beyond austerity

       Gordon Brown

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       “It’s time for ministers to wake up to the pain already being felt in places they are unlikely to ever visit, and to the suffering of people they may never see,” he said.

       Almost four million families are behind with bills, said Mr Brown, adding that food banks are helping a steady stream of parents who cannot afford a cooker.

       He said he was hearing stories he never dreamt he would come across in 2022, and had never witnessed so much poverty and hardship.

       Mr Brown said “partygate” was shameful, but maintained that “povertygate” plumbed new depths, adding: “Leaders are knowingly imposing hardship they will not experience themselves on those already too poor to protect their families.

       “Unlike partygate, poverty does not end, but goes on day after day, heartbreaking and cruel even beyond austerity. No government should be allowed to get away with it.

       “Sadly the welfare state safety net has been torn apart.”