Food Poverty

(asked on 30th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the numbers of people living in food poverty in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England; what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the levels of food poverty in those areas; and what steps her Department is taking to alleviate food poverty levels in those areas of England during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 6th July 2021

National and regional statistics on the number of food insecure households are published annually in the “Family Resources Survey” publication.

Statistics on levels of food insecure households in England and the West Midlands, covering 2019/20, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-resources-survey-financial-year-2019-to-2020

Data for Coventry and the Coventry North East constituency is unavailable due to insufficient sample size.

This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by increasing the living wage, and by spending £111 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.

In addition to these measures, our Covid Local Support Grant is ensuring that families across England get help with food and essential utility bills. We have now extended this temporary scheme for a final time with an additional £160 million in funding between 21 June and 30 September, taking total funding under the scheme to £429 million. This funding recognises that while restrictions are planned to end in July, families might need additional help to get back on their feet as the vaccine rollout continues and our economy recovers. This year, we are also investing up to £220m in the Holiday Activities and Food programme which has been expanded to every local authority across England and we have increased the value of Healthy Start Vouchers from £3.10 to £4.25 in April.

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