A YouGov poll of working families also found that more than one in ten parents – equivalent to over three quarters of a million people - had gone to the extreme of skipping meals to help pay for their home.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: “No parent should be forced to choose between putting food on the table and paying for the roof over their children’s heads.
“These shocking figures show that millions of us are having to make these kind of agonising choices every day.
“Sky-high housing costs and cuts to support are leaving many families trapped on a financial knife-edge.”
The charity’s research further highlighted the tough choices that parents are having to make to stay in their homes, with over a million working parents (13%) saying they had put off buying their children new shoes and one in ten saying they had to delay buying their children a new school uniform in the last year so that they could pay their rent or mortgage.
Recent figures from the government’s English Housing Survey show that households are spending 28% of their weekly income on housing costs alone, rising to 40% for private renters.
