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<p>Period poverty is an issue the government takes very seriously and has taken a
number of steps to address the problem.</p><p>Since January 2020, a Department for
Education scheme provides free period products in schools and 16-19 education institutions
in England. 94% of eligible secondary schools had accessed this scheme by December
2021.</p><p>Additionally, from 1 January 2021, the ‘tampon tax’ has been abolished
- with a zero rate of VAT applying to all period products. Prior to the abolition
of the tax, a Tampon Tax Fund was in place to allocate the funds generated from the
VAT on period products, to projects which improve the lives of disadvantaged women
and girls. A final round of £11.25 million in grant funding was awarded in November
2021 to distribute the VAT collected on period products in the final nine months of
the 2020/21 financial year, before the tax ended.</p><p>As well as these steps, in
2019, NHS England announced that it would offer period products to every hospital
patient who needs them and the Home Office changed the law to ensure that all people
in custody are provided with health and hygiene products for free, to include period
products.</p><p>In March 2020, in light of COVID-19, the work of the Period Poverty
Taskforce was paused to free up resources to focus on the pandemic.</p>
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