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

The statistics highlight the financial nightmare facing women who are being crippled by a toxic combination of super-size mortgages and rising household bills. The number of stay-at-home mothers has plunged to just 2.07 million, the smallest number since records began in 1994.

On a more positive note, the figures, from the Office for National Statistics, show unemployment fell 20,000 over the last three months to 2.44 million.

But economists warned the rise in total employment and the drop in unemployment is likely to be the calm before the storm. Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, predicts ‘a twin peaks job recession.' Unemployment hit nearly 2.5million during the recession, but he fears the next peak will be even higher at 2.9million in the summer of 2012.

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.

In addition, 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.