Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the potential cost to the public purse of (a) food insecurity and (b) economic hardship.

It is unacceptable that people are falling into hardship and using foodbanks. This is why we have committed to tackling poverty and ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels.

Our plan for Making Work Pay and our Get Britain Working White Paper, alongside our work to develop our Child Poverty Strategy, will ensure better outcomes for families whose lives are damaged by poverty as well as supporting the delivery of our missions on economic growth and opportunity.

We have taken action to help those facing hardship through the increase in the National Living Wage from April, the extension of the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments in England and Wales in 2025/26 and the introduction of the Fair Repayment Rate from April.