½ UK children in poverty live in cold, damp homes

More than half of British children in poverty are living in cold, damp homes, a new survey has found.

The study of 2,000 10-17-year-olds by the Children’s Society charity revealed that 76 percent of British children are "often worried" about how much money the family had.

More than 53 percent said their home was too cold last winter and 24 percent said it was "much colder" than they would have liked.

One in four (about 26 percent) also said their home suffered from damp or mould.

Red Cross launches first emergency food aid for UK since WWII

Austerity measures and the economic downturn in the UK have prompted the British branch of the Red Cross to begin formulating an emergency food aid plan for Britain – the first the charity has set up for the country since WWII.

The Geneva-based charity is to start gathering and distributing food with the help of fellow charities and a supermarket chain, allocating donations to Britain’s needy.

The Red Cross is traditionally recognized for its work in disaster-struck regions rather than in developed countries, and the move appears to be a by-product of “indiscriminate cuts in public health and social welfare,” according to Bekele Geleta, the Secretary General of the International Federation of the Red Cross, who spoke to the UK’s Independent.

Poverty may strike 25 million more Europeans

Austerity policies may leave additional 25 million Europeans below the poverty line by 2025, international charity organization Oxfam said.