WOMEN across Britain are living in food and period poverty as a result of “shameful” government policies, trade unionists heard on the eve of International Women’s Day.

Many women and girls have had to sacrifice sanitary towels and tampons in order to provide food for families already under intense pressure due to welfare reforms and a lack of childcare support for women workers, unions at TUC women’s conference warned.

Women are more likely than men to live in poverty and to be working in low-income part-time work.

Shopworkers’ union Usdaw said that low pay and cuts to social security provisions are major contributors to women’s poverty.

Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’s Rebecca Portwood said that the average cost of childcare in Britain is between £122 and £183 a week, “heisting” many women out of the labour market.

And Katherine Dunne of professionals’ union Prospect warned four million children face a “ticking time bomb of nutrition-related illnesses” because they live in households that struggle to afford fruit.

It was time to tell the Tories “enough is enough” and elect a Labour government that will eliminate food poverty, Unite’s Joyce Still told the conference.

She said: “Universal credit has had a detrimental impact on people’s lives. One in five people in the UK live in poverty. The Trussell Trust reported a 13 per cent increase in the use of foodbanks since 2017.

“This is a direct result of austerity. Austerity is not a necessity but a political decision.”

In her lifetime, a woman will spend approximately £18,000 on her periods – if she can afford it.

Period poverty predominately affects schoolchildren, homeless women, refugees and asylum-seekers.

A quarter of women and girls in Britain are missing school and work due to period poverty.

According to children’s rights and gender equality organisation Plan International, 10 per cent of young women have been unable to afford period products and 12 per cent have had to improvise with toilet paper or socks.

Unite’s Anna Rothery called for an end to the stigma surrounding periods to enable conversations around the financial restraints.

She said: “How can we have a woman Prime Minister that can subject women to this archaic situation? No woman should be subjected to the indignity of choosing between food or sanitary products.”

Teachers’ union NASUWT’s Karen Williams said the reason why sanitary products are not free was because charging for them is profitable for companies, taxable for the government and does not affect men.

Scotland has introduced schemes to offer access to free period products to low-income families and the Welsh government has ring-fenced £1 million for sanitary products for those most in need.

Unions called on the government to provide free sanitary wear to low-income families, schools, colleges, universities and homeless shelters, and to closely assess the impact of welfare policies including universal credit.