'There's so much I want to give my daughter - poverty means I can't'

As her three-year-old daughter wriggles on her lap and plays with her mother's hair, Rebecca gives an honest assessment of what dealing with poverty means for her.

"The amount of times I will lay in bed and just cry because there's so much I want to give her that I can't give her," she said.

"Mentally, emotionally it takes a massive, massive toll.

"Just being a parent, then add in the cost of living and poverty, because that's exactly where we are now in Wales, it is hard, really, really hard."

Like many of the parents at the Teilo's Community Cwtch playgroup in Swansea, Rebecca is frank about the financial struggles she faces.

"I'm a single parent on one part-time pay-cheque – shopping shouldn't be luxury," she said.

"If I move out on my own there's just no way I could survive. Lucky enough I've got incredible parents to support the both of us because I wouldn't be able to live."

Danielle, who is at the playgroup with the youngest of her four children, said problems could accumulate quickly.

"Its hard to try and keep above the emergency," she explained.

"I've come very, very close to that line and then I've got to find more (money) to fund that emergency and add to the original payment."

As a result, she often finds she has to go without in order to provide for her children.

"On many occasions its come to that decision, if my children want do after-school club or I do something for myself, then my children do that club," she said.

Danielle wants politicians to offer practical help with energy costs all year round.

"The warm house assistance was very helpful over winter. I think they could provide more help through the summer – heating blankets, heating grants, anything helps really."

About a third of Welsh children live in poverty with the latest data published in March suggesting a figure of 32%, the highest among the four UK nations.

It's a number which has remined largely unchanged over the last three decades, despite a succession of different policies at Welsh and UK government level.

According to the Children's Commissioner for Wales, Rocio Cifuentes, the target of eliminating child poverty - dropped in 2016 - needs to be reinstated by whoever takes power.

"I see it as a very lamentable dereliction of duty and of ambition and of focus and I would like to see next Welsh government change that," she said.

"We can't afford to fail another generation, we can't afford to see another generation of children experiencing these really, really awful circumstances where there isn't enough food on their table and there isn't enough money to get them to their place of learning."

'I've seen really distressing scenes'

During her time as commissioner, Cifuentes said she had witnessed more families living in very deep poverty, where household incomes are less than 40% of the median after housing costs are taken into account.

"I've heard some heart-breaking stories, I've seen really distressing scenes in terms of the conditions children and young people live in," she said.

"Children coming to school with very little in their lunchboxes or if they have to get the bus and pay for the bus they tell me they sometimes can't afford to come every day, they have to decide what days they can afford to get to school."

The main parties standing in the upcoming Senedd election on 7 May differ on how to make life more affordable for struggling families.

The Welsh Conservatives, Greens, Labour and Lib Dems all have pledges to extend free childcare, while Plaid Cymru would also offer a £10 weekly payment for some low-income families. Reform's flagship policy for tackling the cost of living is a cut in income tax.

According to Cherrie Bija from Faith in Families, which runs the Teilo's Community playgroup and a foodbank in the community, families need urgent help to break out of a relentless pattern of poverty.

"If you are daily in this crisis, in this struggle working hard, then it is really difficult to find that opportunity to break out of it because you are stuck there," she said.

"Childcare is expensive, having the clothes that you need, to be able to provide for your children, to have those better opportunities, you are just stuck in this cycle continuously."

Having worked in the charity sector in Swansea for more than 30 years, she said she seen the problem widen with more people turning to them for help.

"The need is greater and the type of people accessing support is changing, we are seeing families that are working, that are doing one or two jobs and still can't make ends meet.

"They are getting up and working long shifts and still not able to pay their rent or mortgage and buy the essential products most of us take for granted."

For many parents at the playgroup, hardship is something they experienced themselves growing up and want desperately to avoid handing down to their children.

Whoever wins power in this election, tackling the deepening problem of child poverty is arguably the biggest challenge the next Welsh government will face.