The Labour Government’s first Spending Review, delivered today by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, included the setting up of a new, multi-year funded Crisis and Resilience Fund to replace the Household Support Fund and confirmation of the extension of Free Schools Meals to all children in families on Universal Credit, which has been welcomed by Manchester based Resolve Poverty.
The new Crisis and Resilience Fund, which will replace the Household Support Fund, will allocate £1 billion per year to councils to enable them to effectively support residents facing financial crisis.
The commitment to extend Free School Meals provision to all children in families that are in receipt of Universal Credit is projected to lift 100,000 children out of poverty.
However, Resolve Poverty warns that the Chancellor must further invest in the social security system and go further in equipping localities to fight child poverty.
Graham Whitham, Chief Executive at Resolve Poverty said: “Today’s Spending Review provides some welcome relief for people experiencing poverty and local councils who are working in extremely difficult circumstances to support residents. The new Crisis and Resilience Fund is a welcome replacement for the Household Support Fund and we’ve been campaigning for a number of years for multi-year crisis funding for councils. While we await the detail and guidance, this is a positive direction of travel and an acknowledgement by the government that local councils need empowering in this area.
“The extension of Free School Meals provision is a major step forward by government, after years of inaction at a national level on anti-poverty policies.
“However, today is also a missed opportunity to couple this good news with an ambitious and far-reaching child poverty strategy and to announce a raft of measures, such as ending the two-child limit on benefits that make eradicating child poverty a realistic prospect.
“Resolve Poverty works locally to end poverty nationally by working with stakeholders on efforts to tackle financial hardship in communities up and down the country. A national child poverty strategy and greater investment in social security and local councils is desperately needed if the potential of localities on this agenda is to be realised.
“We know that central government has to create the conditions for everyone to play their part in a national mission to drive down poverty. The Spending Review has missed the mark.”
