Debate contribution: Holiday Hunger and the High Cost of School Uniforms

Debate contribution by Mr Mark Durkan on 12 November 2024.

MLA

Mr Mark Durkan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

12 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Holiday Hunger and the High Cost of School Uniforms

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4658738

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Today's discussion goes beyond the perennial debate on rising school costs for parents. It is fundamentally about poverty and the extreme hardship that people face as a result of Executive inaction and, quite frankly, appalling Westminster welfare policies, which are hitting working families the hardest. We used to talk about the JAMs, or the just about managing. Many of today's parents are not managing. They are barely getting by. The worry of being a parent never ends, yet, for 71% of parents, affording school uniform costs is an added anxiety, but school costs do not stop there. With meals, school trips and extracurricular activities, the price of schooling can often seem insurmountable, and for some, impossible. My office has already been contacted by families anxious about how they will get by over Christmas. Sadly, for some, Santa will not be coming this year. However, gifts are the least of their concerns. Their real worry is that the local food bank, a lifeline for so many, will close during Christmas week. When I made the case for restoring the school holiday food grant ahead of the festive period this year, Minister Givan cited the anti-poverty strategy — a strategy as yet unpublished, let alone delivered, that has been heralded by all Ministers, I think, as a panacea for all our poverty woes. It is appalling that food insecurity continues to impact on families here, and even more appalling that the Executive continue to sidestep responsibility. We get the impact of 14 years of austerity on successive Executives' — at times, no Executive's — ability to deliver for people here, but 95,000 children here are living in poverty. Most of them have at least one parent in work. Food bank demand has reached record levels. Departmental research has shown the previous positive impact of the grant, especially for children with disabilities, who are disproportionately affected by the cuts. Despite clear evidence to support the fact that there is a need for the programme, the Minister's response to my correspondence of last month reflects a refusal to acknowledge the dire situation that families face. A hundred thousand children who qualify for school meals go without that crucial support. The actual number affected is likely to be even higher when we consider that many working families who do not qualify are equally vulnerable, if not more so. Statistics reveal a sobering picture, particularly following the migration to universal credit, a system that is now in full swing. In 2019, around 1,500 households were impacted on by the callous two-child policy. At that point, the SDLP warned of the escalating poverty to come. I take no satisfaction from having, sadly, been proven right about that. As of May this year, almost 11,000 families were affected by that devastating, poverty-inducing policy. With universal credit, we also saw a reduction in the income threshold for free school meals and uniform grants from £16,000 to £14,000. I appreciate that the Minister made an intervention to increase that back to £15,000, but that does not negate the fact that many vulnerable families have seen vital support cut. It is barmy that, at a time when daily living costs are soaring and we should be increasing the eligibility threshold, we are stripping that lifeline from a considerable cohort of our poorest children. What kind of society are we creating where children do not have the basics of food and clothes in school? The Executive's persistent failure to act, coupled with their apparent apathy about rising poverty, is an affront to every parent and child who is struggling to access basic needs. The school holiday food grant must be reinstated immediately, along with meaningful efforts being made to deliver effective legislative change that will protect, not punish, the poorest families.

629 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:33 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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