Four out of 10 children in a Birmingham constituency are living in homes which depend on benefits.
Government figures show that 41 per cent of youngsters in Ladywood are growing up in families where at least one adult claims benefits designed for people who are not in work.
And more than 30 per cent of children in Erdington, Hodge Hill, Sparkbrook and Northfield are living in housholds which claim benefits for people who do not work.
Conservatives last night claimed the figures showed the Government had broken its promise to end child poverty.
But Labour MP Richard Burden (Lab Northfield) said the Government had created millions of new jobs in the past decade.
The figures include youngsters in homes where adults are claiming benefits for people who are not working, such as income Support, Jobseekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance. People claiming Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance are not classed as unemployed.
However, both Labour and the Conservatives have claimed in recent months that they will reform the system to get many claimants into work.
The Tories last night accused Labour of allowing immigrants to come to Britain to work while many British people were out of a job. Chris Grayling, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, said: "This is a shocking indictment of the Government's failure to tackle child poverty.
"Gordon Brown and his Ministers are always claiming how much they have done - but the reality on the ground tells a very different story.
"Worklessness is endemic in many communities, but even so, the fact that nearly half the children brought up in some areas come from homes entirely dependent on benefits is a figure that should bring shame to Ministers, particularly given the fact that so many people have come to work in Britain from overseas in the past 10 years."
In Britain 2.2 million children are growing up in household's receiving out-of-work benefits, one in five of the total.
But in Ladywood, the figure is 13,105, 40 per cent of all children.
There are 8,895 youngsters in Hodge Hill growing up in homes receiving benefits, 38.4 per cent of all children.
In Sparkbrook and Small Heath the figure is 13,920, 37.4 per cent of the total, and in Erdington the figure is 7,275, 35.9 per cent of the total. In Northfield, 5,285 children grow up in homes receiving benefits, 33.1 per cent of the total.
Mr Burden said: "The Government has created literally millions of jobs over the past 10 years. It is also working to improve skills and education to ensure young people are able to find work in the future.
"However, there is a challenge to get more people in incapacity benefit into work. One of the concerns I have is the way efforts to tackle worklessness are co-ordinated at a city level and regional level."
