Something terrible is slowly happening across the face of Britain.

We are seeing the return of absolute levels of poverty which have not existed on this scale since the Victorian age over a century ago. Relative poverty is when people can't afford the comforts and enjoyments which most people have, but absolute poverty is when people haven't the money to pay for even their most basic needs.

The evidence is all around us. There are now over 300 foodbanks in Britain, and the number is rising every week.

The Red Cross is setting up centres to help the destitute, just as they do in developing countries.

A new study published this week shows that even in prosperous areas of the country such as London more than a quarter of the population are now living in poverty.

And a new scary fact is steadily emerging - an increasing number of these poverty households are not dependent on benefits but have people in work.

In northern England the first of the Northern Housing Consortium's surveys, just published, presents a devastating picture.

It is based on 74 households, a small sample but one which broadly reflects all households living in the social rented sector.

It reveals that after paying for rent, food and other essential bills, two-thirds end up with less than £10 left each week while more than a third end up with nothing left at all.

A quarter can only afford £20 or less on food per week. How many of the rest of us could survive on that?

Four-fifths of them are in debt, and not small levels of debt either - it averages nearly £2,500.

Some of the responses to the survey are heart-rending.

Take this one. "Hate the system. I have worked all my life and because work is so hard to find, I have been taking anything. I had a phone call one night and was offered three days work starting the next day.

"I did it, then went to the jobcentre to tell them I had earned three days money. They fined me for not telling them sooner, but I couldn't as I'd had to start at 7.30am the next morning.

"Then I put a new claim in, then got another three days work. This has been on and off for months. I hate not working and will take what I can, but now this has messed all my benefits up and I'm getting fined.

"They stop my money and I have to sell things to pay bedroom tax and council tax. I am going to have nothing left at this rate. How can this be right when all I am trying to do is find a job?"

What makes this so gratuitously cruel for the victims is that it isn't even necessary.

The pain is enforced, but the budget deficit is not being reduced.

The right way to cut the deficit is by public investment to stimulate the economy, cut the dole queues - it now costs £18 billion a year to keep the current 2.5 million unemployed out of work - and kick-start growth to turn the economy around, which the present fragile so-called "recovery" is certainly not doing.

Then, and only then, will the bitter scourge of absolute poverty be removed from this land.

Michael Meacher is Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton. Read his blog at www.michaelmeacher.info