Around 50,000 stay-at-home mothers in the UK have been forced back to work over the past year, official figures  revealed yesterday.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, employment data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the number of stay-at-home mothers fell to its lowest level since August 1994.

According to analysts, many women had no choice but to go back to work to pay the mortgage and rising costs of bills.

The figures suggested that, although unemployment fell slightly, many families were under pressure to make ends meet. In the three months leading up to August 2009, 2,126,000 women were at home looking after their families.

But by the same period this year, this figure had fallen to 2,076,000. Influential think-tank Civitas said the figures illustrated “the brutal reality” of life for mothers in the currrent economic climate.

Director of family policy at Civitas, Anastasia de Waal, said that people were “feeling compelled to go back to work because their mortgage payments are high and one salary just doesn’t cover it, and because consumer prices are high”.

“There is no doubt that a lot of mothers are going back to work quicker than they would like to,” she added.

The number of mothers who have to find a job is likely to keep on rising as a result of the controversial changes to child benefit.

From 2013, no higher-rate taxpayer will get the crucial handout, currently worth £1,752 a year for a couple with two children.

Jill Kirby, a director of the Centre for Policy Studies and author of ‘The Price of Parenthood’, said many mothers pay a heavy price for ‘over-committing’ themselves on their mortgages.

She said: ‘The overwhelming reason for mothers to return to work is sheer financial pressure, often much earlier than they would like. Many women do feel really trapped by their own situations.’

With an average asking price of nearly £400,000 in London, and £300,000 in the South-East, many couples with young families have to take on huge debts to buy a family home.

A recent survey found the majority of mothers who return to work after having a baby are forced into it for financial reasons.

Researchers from Uswitch.com asked mothers with young children under the age of three what was their ‘main’ reason for going back to work.

More than 50 per cent said that financial pressure, particularly significant debt problems, was to blame for their decision to go back to work.

The most common answer was simply: ‘Money was tight’, while others said: ‘We were in serious debt by the time I returned to work and needed the income to repay it.’

It comes as the ONS figures show the number of people who have a job in Britain is rising – but only because they are forced into part-time jobs.

The number of people working part-time, including many mothers with young children, has rocketed to 7.9million, with experts dubbing the phenomenon ‘part-time Britain’.