Up to half a million schoolchildren are working illegally with many playing truant from school in order to meet work commitments.

A MORI survey for the TUC published on Wednesday reveals that 485,000 children have regular jobs and one in ten were not going to school in order to work.

A quarter were flouting the law by working before 6.00am and half were working after 8.00pm.

Despite it being illegal for anyone under the age of 13 to do any kind of paid work, one-in-four told researchers they were working in some capacity. Some 44 per cent of 15 and 16-year-olds are now working, according to the study.

The type of work was traditional "pocket-money" work such as baby-sitting, paper rounds, cleaning or working in a shop.

Researchers found that the number of children working has not decrease since the TUC's last survey on the issue four years ago despite EU legislation.

The TUC fears that the education performance of working children is suffering; 29 per cent of respondents said they often or sometimes felt too tired to do homework or school work.

Pay is a further concern, with only 11 per cent earning more than £5 an hour - and many being paid much less. Nearly a third earn £2.50 an hour or less and one in five of those working in term-time gets less than £2 an hour.

TUC general secretary, John Monks, said: 'It's fine for kids to earn a bit of extra pocket money with a paper round or Saturday job. But it becomes a real problem if they are missing school and finding they can't keep up with school or homework."

He said the government must ensure it stamps out exploitation of the young in the workplace.

"The law exists to make sure children aren't exploited and the TUC believes teenagers who work can gain a useful insight into working life. But in many cases, neither children or their parents, know what they are allowed to do - and it seems that many employers don't know the law either," said Monks.