Susan Lilley says food prices are forcing holiday choices that leave her children with cheaper, less healthy meals. At Stormont, Danny Baker has introduced a bill that could bring back holiday food payments for families eligible for free school meals.
The proposed scheme would cost about £20m a year and would again support the families of 90,000 children. During the Covid-19 pandemic, those families received £27 per child each fortnight in school holidays before the payment was removed in March 2023.
Lilley, a single mother of two and trainee classroom assistant, said the weekly shop has become one of her biggest financial worries. She said: “You want to have everything they need, everything that's nutritious for them, but it's impossible trying to get the quality of food, especially food and veg and protein, with the prices.”
Susan Lilley and Food Prices
£4.50 for a box of strawberries is out of reach for Lilley at times, while a 35p donut can be easier to buy. She said: “My little girl would like strawberries and blackberries, but it's a fortune, I was in this morning and I had to ask her to pick something else,” adding that the cheaper option “won't fill her the same, won't give her the brain power for school. It will actually damage her more.”
90,000 children were covered by the earlier holiday payment scheme, and eligibility for free school meals is tied to a household income below £15,390 a year. UK food inflation has slowed, but prices are still rising, leaving the holiday shopping bill high even after the rate of increase eased.
Stormont and the £20m Cost
£20m a year is the price attached to restoring the payments, and that figure is what turns the bill from a welfare signal into a budget decision. Danny Baker introduced the measure in the assembly, so the immediate next step is whether it wins support there and survives the funding test that ended the old scheme.
Dr Mark Browne said axing the scheme was “the most difficult decision he had to make,” a line that captures the pressure behind the earlier cut. Lilley’s response was blunter: “people aren't managing.”
“Put your money where your mouth is. Children are our future. If they are being limited now how are they going to be the best they can be, to be productive and grow in to full, whole human beings and adults.”
“Nutrition affects them growing up, it can be a barrier to education.”
“It's important that everyone has access to healthy food, especially children.”
