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Half a million children could go hungry during the holidays if the government decides not to maintain a vital community fund, experts warn.
A report by the charity End Furniture Poverty says 22 local authorities have said they will stop issuing free school meal vouchers if Finance Minister Rachel Reeves does not extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) beyond the end of September, with a further 20 authorities unsure how they would continue to fund the measure.
This would mean that children in more than a quarter of regions would go hungry during the holidays, says the report’s author, Daniel Peake. Around 561,000 children who are entitled to the vouchers would no longer be able to receive them if the HSF were not continued.
These vouchers gained notoriety in 2020 when footballer Marcus Rashford passionately campaigned for their retention during the Covid pandemic. After initial resistance from the Conservative government, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson eventually relented and allowed the provision of free school meals to children from low-income families over the holidays.
Although the government-funded free school meal voucher scheme ended over the 2021 holidays, many local authorities have covered the cost and continue to provide it from their own budgets. The End Furniture Poverty report has now revealed that 44 per cent of the total HSF budget in 2023/24 has been used to provide holiday meal vouchers for families receiving free school meals.
Introduced in 2021, the HSF is designed to help vulnerable households through the cost of living crisis. Local authorities are free to decide how best to use their share of the £500 million fund, for example by providing cash grants, supermarket vouchers or assistance with energy bills.
The fund has been extended four times since its launch, each time for six months, until September 30 this year. Many experts have now called on the new finance minister, Rachel Reeves, to extend the fund once again to continue providing this important “lifeline”. Perhaps she will use her October budget as an opportunity to do so.
Mr Peake says: ‘The alternative to providing vouchers is that children will go hungry until the welfare state is able to adequately meet demand.
“This will have endless negative impacts on public services in general. It will reduce educational opportunities and the ability of the poorest children to reach their potential.”
A survey by the Local Government Association also found that 94 percent of local authorities believe the HSF should continue, with almost two-thirds of respondents saying that otherwise they would not be able to provide local welfare – money given to people in great financial need.
These demands come as the new Labour government continues to face criticism from campaigners for refusing to bow to pressure to raise the cap on the two-child benefit, a measure that prevents parents from claiming Universal Credit or tax credits for more than two children.
The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) described the cap as “the biggest driver of rising child poverty”. The charity said that removing it could lift 300,000 children out of poverty and a further 700,000 out of deep poverty.
Ms Reeves has said she will not commit to the £3 billion cost of scrapping the measure “without being able to say where the money will come from”, meaning the issue is unlikely to be addressed in her October Budget either.
In response to these demands, the government set up a taskforce in July to implement its child poverty strategy. The ministerial team, led by DWP Secretary Liz Kendall and Education Minister Bridget Phillipson, will “explore how we can use all the levers at our disposal in government to develop an ambitious strategy.”
Introducing the initiative, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “For too long, children have been left behind and decisive action has not been taken to tackle the root causes of poverty. This is completely unacceptable – no child should go hungry, cold or have their future denied to them.”
“That is why working on an ambitious strategy to tackle child poverty is our top priority. And my ministers will leave no stone unturned to give every child the best possible start in life.”
It goes hand in hand with Labour’s Child Welfare Bill, unveiled in the Prime Minister’s Speech in July, which will introduce free breakfast clubs for all primary school children, strengthen child protection rules and limit the number of branded items on school uniforms.
For up-to-date information on benefits, pensions and living costs, see the Independent’s handy guide.
