Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the rise in demand for food banks, what steps they are taking to support families experiencing food poverty.

Government recognises that understanding food security is important and this is why we added internationally used food security questions to the Family Resources Survey in 2019/20 and added further questions on foodbank use in 2021/22. These statistics help our understanding of the characteristics of people most in need and, alongside the broad suite of poverty data, help to shape future policy considerations.

We are committed to reducing poverty and supporting low-income families. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children.

From April 2023, we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1% and, subject to Parliamentary approval, working-age benefits will rise by 6.7% from April 2024, in line with inflation.

With almost one million job vacancies across the UK, our focus remains firmly on supporting people, including parents, to move into and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. The latest statistics show that in 2021/22 children living in workless households were 5 times more likely to be in absolute poverty, after housing costs, than those where all adults work.

To help people into work, our core Jobcentre offer provides a range of options, including face-to-face time with work coaches and interview assistance. In addition, there is specific support targeted towards young people, people aged 50 plus and job seekers with disabilities or health issues.

To help people progress in work, our voluntary in-work progression offer, rolled-out from April 2022, is now available in all Jobcentres across Great Britain. We estimate that around 1.2m low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work.

To support parents into work, on 28 June 2023, the maximum monthly amounts that a parent can be reimbursed for their childcare increased by 47%, from £646.35 for one child and £1,108.04 for two or more children to £950.92 and £1,630.15 respectively. Importantly, we can now also provide even more help with upfront childcare costs when parents move into work or increase their hours.

We are also committed to ending low hourly pay for those on the National Living Wage (NLW) in the UK. From 1 April 2023, the National Living Wage increased by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over. Further to this, on 1 April 2024, we will increase the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 years and over by 9.8% to £11.44 representing an increase of over £1,800 to the gross annual earnings of a full-time worker on the NLW.

This Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living which is why we are providing total support of £104bn over 2022-2025 to help households and individuals. Included within this, to support low-income households with increasing rent costs, the government will raise Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents in April 2024. This will benefit 1.6 million low-income households, who will be around £800 a year better off on average in 2024-25.