Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of families with children relying on emergency food parcels.

We are committed to tackling poverty and ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels. We are expanding Free School Meals to every pupil whose household is in receipt of Universal Credit, which will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament, and introducing a new £1 billion package (including Barnett impact) to reform crisis support, including funding to ensure the poorest children do not go hungry outside of term time.

This comes alongside £600 million for the Holiday Activities and Food Programme across the next three financial years as well as expanding free breakfast clubs, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.

The Child Poverty Taskforce will publish a Child Poverty Strategy in the autumn that will deliver measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty. The Strategy will tackle overall child poverty as well as going beyond that to focus on children in deepest poverty lacking essentials, and what is needed to give every child the best start in life.

We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty. Our Get Britain Working White Paper, backed by an initial £240 million investment in 2025/26, will target and tackle economic inactivity and unemployment and join up employment, health and skills support to meet the needs of local communities.