Child Food Poverty in Dagenham and Rainham

This week the Child Poverty Action Group held a briefing session for MPs ahead of the Westminster Hall debate on Child Food Poverty planned for Monday 24 May.

The session highlighted that there are currently 4.3 million children living in households below the poverty line, and that based on pre-pandemic data at least two in five children living in poverty across England were ineligible for free school meals.

MP Hits Out At Food Parcel Scandal

On 12 January 2021 images hit social media of food parcels delivered by Chartwells to children entitled to free school meals. These parcels were delivered in place of the £30 food voucher which was previously provided by the government to support struggling families during lockdown.

The voucher and replacement food parcel were intended to provided children's lunches for 10 days. However, what was provided has been referred to by many as inadequate at best and negligent at worst with many receiving out of date or damaged items.

MP Calls for Extended Free School Meal Scheme

In October, ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review, Jon Cruddas MP co-signed a letter calling on the Department for Education to extend Free School Meal provision to more children in poverty.

Free School Meals were first established in 1906 and despite the changing eligibility requirements, the premise for doing so has remained constant- to provide a nutritional meal to children in order for them to learn and develop in and out of school.

MP Responds to Highest Unemployment Levels in a Decade

The number of unemployed claimants in Dagenham and Rainham for September 2020 was 6,580. This represents a rate of 9.4% of the economically active population aged 16 to 64. The equivalent UK claimant rate was 6.5%.

This is the highest rate of unemployed claimants since the constituency was created in 2010. It is worth noting that the number of claimants had been stable at around the 3,000 mark until the start of lockdown. Since the start of the pandemic and subsequent safety measures coming into force there has been an increase of 3,845 unemployed claimants.