London, 15 July 2021
Dan Paskins, Director of UK Impact, Save the Children UK
“We strongly support the National Food Strategy’s proposals to address the diet related inequality of children in England. We know that access to healthy, nutritious food is crucial for children’s development, and right now, too many children are missing out because their families simply don’t have enough money.
This strategy clearly lays out how poverty affects families’ ability to eat well. Parents we work with tell us they regularly skip meals to make sure their children are fed, and have to make impossible choices between eating and paying essential bills. And this situation is only set to get worse in the autumn, when the scheduled cut to Universal Credit comes into force and family incomes are cut by £1,000 a year.
It is clear that Universal Credit payments need to provide families with enough to live on, alongside the measures recommended in this strategy. No child should go hungry, and all children should have access to healthy and nutritious food.
To ensure families are not pushed into further poverty and are able to live a dignified life, we call on the UK government to get behind the recommendations in the National Food Strategy as well cancelling the scheduled cut to Universal Credit.”
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