Food For London Now: Demand for government to help more than a million hungry families this Christmas

Lucy Young
May Bulman3 December 2020

More than a million families with children will rely on charity food parcels this Christmas, new research suggests, prompting calls for ministers to better support households whose income has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Findings published by Save the Children indicate that 37 per cent of Britain’s poorest families - around 1.3 million - will turn to food parcels over the festive period, while 21 per cent - around 760,000 - will rely on donated gifts.

The figures come as the Evening Standard strives to tackle food poverty in the capital through our Food For London Now campaign - supporting charity partners to deliver more than a thousand meals a day to vulnerable people across our city.

The research, based on a survey of 1,000 parents on universal credit and child tax credit with children under 18 - of whom there are in total 3.6 million across the UK - reveals that six in 10 of these families will go into debt over the Christmas period, while one in three will resort to borrowing on credit cards.

It shows that some 69 per cent of the low-income families surveyed said they were more worried about their finances since the pandemic started, with 84 per cent of these reporting that they would struggle to cover the cost of Christmas this year.

One parent who will be relying on donated food this Christmas is Rebecca, from Norfolk, who lives with her eight-year-old daughter. The 35-year-old single mother, who works as a parent support coordinator for a charity, said universal credit was “not enough to live off as it is”.

“My sister-in-law is going to give us a chicken for our gift this year, as my daughter really wants a roast dinner. For everything else, we rely on our local church who give us food parcels,” she said.

“It’s food that the supermarket can’t sell so it’s luck of the draw what we get – sometimes it’s just some out-of-date bread and a lettuce. But even if it’s out of date, it’s at least something. I don’t know what we’d do otherwise.

“Last year a charity gave us a Christmas tree so we still have that, which is nice. On the one hand it’s so nice to have so much help, but on the other hand it’s demoralising. I want to pay for things myself but the government just doesn’t give us enough support.”

Rebecca said that although she is not a “frivolous person who spends money on nonsense”, she was struggling to pay for heating as well as food, which has become even more challenging during the winter months.

“We’re frugal and we use blankets and jumpers, but when you’re literally counting every single penny, even a bit of extra heating gets so expensive,” she added.

Save the Children is warning that more children will be plunged into poverty as a result of the pandemic, with job losses and the costs of lockdown forcing many families to cut back on food or electricity, rely on food banks or run up debts to get by.

The latest government figures on child poverty show 4.2 million under-16s live below the poverty line – 30 per cent of the UK’s child population – and experts say the figure is likely to have increased considerably since the first lockdown in March.

The Children’s Commissioner warned last week that a generation of poor children may “never recover” from the impact of the public health crisis, as they are pushed deeper into economic hardship due to job losses among parents.

Research by charity Turn2Us meanwhile revealed that nearly half of families with children had been forced into some form of debt since the start of the pandemic, amounting to around 3.6 million families.

Dan Paskins, director of UK impact at Save the Children, said many struggling families had seen their household budgets “stretched to the limit” by the pandemic, and would continue to feel the economic impacts of the crisis for “some time”.

“Every parent wants to protect the magic of Christmas for their children, but when you’re already having to make impossible choices between heating your home or putting food on the table, there’s nothing left over for gifts or treats,” he said.

Mr Paskins urged the government to commit to keeping in place the £20-a-week uplift to universal credit, introduced in April to help families cope with the pandemic, which is set to be removed in April 2021.

He added: “Christmas is going to be especially difficult for many families this year, but the impacts of growing up in poverty will continue to affect children long after the Christmas lights come down – especially if the government takes away over £1,000 in benefits from families from April.”

Let’s Feed London Now!

This November and December, together with our sister title The Independent, we will be delivering food directly to 1,000 Londoners a day through our partner  With Compassion. Please donate here to help ensure no Londoner goes hungry this Christmas. 

Iain Porter, policy and partnerships manager at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, echoed the calls for the government to commit to maintaining the £20 a week increase to universal credit, adding: “As unemployment rises and more livelihoods look uncertain, it would be a terrible mistake to cut this vital support for families in April.”

A government spokesperson said: “We have always been committed to supporting the lowest-paid families. We have announced a £400m package of support for this winter and beyond, including £170m to help families stay warm and well fed, millions in support for food aid charities, and £220m to help children through the Holiday Activities and Food programme.”

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