Poverty campaigners have rounded on the government and claimed not enough has been done to tackle deprivation as new figures showed the numbers of children and pensioners living on the breadline rose for the second year in succession.

According to official statistics which were released yesterday, 2.9 million children are living in poverty in the UK - up 100,000 since 2005-06 - while pensioner poverty rose by 200,000 to 2.1 million.

While ministers could do little but express dismay at figures that threaten the success of Labour's core pledge to halve child poverty by 2010 and eliminate it by 2020, charities and opposition parties reacted with anger. Save the Children said the figures were "shocking" and Age Concern described the reversal as a "national disgrace".

Progress in Scotland has ground to a halt with 210,000 children living in relative poverty while a reduction in poor pensioners, down 10,000 to 180,000 on the breadline, bucked the UK trend.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said additional spending on child tax credit of £2.8bn would be needed for the government to have a 50:50 chance of meeting the target.

Childrens Minister Beverly Hughes pledged to redouble efforts to reach the target and Employment and Welfare Reform Minister Stephen Timms acknowledged the figures represented a slip.

The Conservatives claimed the figures were proof that Gordon Brown's government had run out of steam.

John Dickie, head of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said: "The government did take its foot off the accelerator and the result is this lack of progress. We just need an extra £3bn to boost the income of poor people.

It is within the reach of a country as wealthy as the UK if the political and moral leadership is there."