Three church leaders have called on the UK government to apologise for false claims about claimants and to correct their figures in the Budget.

Church Action on Poverty has called for a closing of the growing gap between rich and poor in the UK.

As World Cup host South Africa kick-off the tournament against Mexico, charity War on Want launches a new film contrasting the huge sums spent by the government with growing poverty.

The government appears likely to miss its target of halving child poverty by 2010 by at least 600,000 children, according to figures given in yesterday's budget and highlighted by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).