Since the Opposition Day Debate on Wednesday 21 October on the extension of the free school meals voucher system outside of school term times, some critics have either failed to mention, or sought to misrepresent, the comprehensive package of measures that this Government has rightly introduced to support those children and families who need it most during this difficult period – a package I have been proud to have helped develop as Minister for Welfare Delivery.
I want to begin by reassuring you that this Government is now providing more targeted, and localised support to families and children in need outside of school term times, in place of an extension to the free school meals voucher system over the holidays, and I note that this crucial detail has not been mentioned in the discourse resulting from the vote on Wednesday. In addition, contrary to some inaccurate claims currently being made, we have made absolutely no change to the provision of free school meals in schools other than making more children eligible.
We have provided councils with £63 million of funding which means Essex County Council has received £1.4 million from the Government to extend its Holiday Hunger Programme. This programme is in partnership with Active Essex and will see 33 programmes available across the county and more than 1,000 children provided with free activities and food over the school holidays. Moreover, the council is launching a Half-Term Emergency Fund, a new scheme for foodbanks and other organisations. Foodbanks will be able to apply for up to £2,500 to help ensure they have enough supplies to cover the half term holiday. Like all councils in England, Essex County Council has links with local schools and social services in our county, and they are therefore in a much better position to identify and to provide the necessary support for children and families in need during school holidays, as opposed to a much more limited and centralised government system. I would also like to highlight that this support provided by our council will support families who may be ineligible for free school meals such as those with no recourse to public funds, those with children below school age and those who have seed sudden drops in their income.
I also praise Marcus Rashford MBE and his campaign to highlight the important issue of food insecurity. He deserves credit from all of us. As a society, I know that we want to do all we can to address child food insecurity - one child going hungry is one child too many, and I do not believe that there is anyone in Parliament that doesn’t want to see food insecurity as a thing of the past.
As I am sure you are already aware, the Government acted to ensure that eligible children could still receive free school meals during the coronavirus lockdown when they were not in school. This was in the form of a supermarket voucher system which saw over £380 million worth of voucher codes redeemed and over 20,000 schools placing orders. In addition to this, we temporarily extended the eligibility criteria for free school meals to include some groups who have no recourse to public funds. I welcomed this as the correct course of action to take because many schools were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and low-income families would have had to pick up the costs of meals which would otherwise have been provided to children at school during term times. Now that nearly all children are back at school, however, the situation is different and all eligible children from low-income families are once again receiving free meals in school.
Unfortunately, the issue of food insecurity is wider than this, and a temporary extension to the free school meals voucher scheme will not provide the most effective support needed to alleviate it. I know that Ministers, me included, are carefully considering all three of Mr Rashford’s proposals which form part of the National Food Strategy Part One.
Perhaps most importantly, the wider extensive support package introduced by the Government for families most in need has not been considered nor mentioned. The UK has a welfare state which is one of the most comprehensive in the world, and this Government has been fully committed to supporting low-income families during this pandemic. In addition to the £380 million voucher scheme we have run over the summer, we are providing free school meals in school for 1.4 million children from low-income families and, as I have discussed above, are providing £63 million to local councils to help them support families who require it in their respective communities.
Further, as the Minister for Welfare Delivery, I have worked to improve our welfare system and make it more generous. We have introduced a £9.3 billion cash injection into our welfare system since the coronavirus outbreak, including an increase to the Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit basic element by over £1,000 this year – equating to an additional £86.67 per month on top of the planned annual uprating. Around 2.5 million households can benefit from this additional funding, as will anyone who becomes unemployed or whose earnings decrease under the impact of coronavirus. We raised the Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile which means up to £600 this year for an average family. In addition, we have introduced £500m in local council tax support and £63m in local welfare assistance grants.
I hope the above reassures you that this Government has introduced a comprehensive package of support measures available for anyone struggling. This is not about whether or not we provide support for families over the half term week but how best to target that support to those who need it the most.
Rest assured that colleagues and I are constantly looking at what more we can do to support disadvantaged and vulnerable families and the Christmas holidays are front and centre of our minds.
If you need my help, as ever, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do all I can to help.