The Government is committed to tackling poverty in all its forms by building a strong economy and a benefit system that supports employment and higher pay. A child growing up in a home where all adults are working is around 5 times less likely to be in poverty than a child in a household where nobody works. Since 2010, there are around 1 million fewer workless households and 667,000 fewer children in such households.<\/p>
To help make sure every child gets the best start in life, the Department for Education is investing up to £26 million in a programme to establish or improve breakfast clubs in over 1,700 schools, targeting most disadvantaged areas. The programme\u2019s effectiveness will be reviewed once it concludes next year. Additionally, over 1.2 million of the most disadvantaged children receive a free school meal.<\/p>
The Government has not made an assessment of the incidence of food banks or similar charity-based provision in England and Wales. However, new questions have been added to the Family Resources Survey to develop a food insecurity measure from 2021 to help better understand the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk.<\/p>
This Government spend more on family benefits than any other country in the G7, at 3.5% of GDP (OECD, 2015 data), demonstrating a commitment to providing a strong safety net for those that need it.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4174", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Baroness Stedman-Scott"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-08-05", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-08-05T15:49:45.287Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-07-24", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Poverty"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the National School Breakfast Programme feeding an estimated 280,000 children, (2) the number of pupils receiving Free School Meals, (3) the incidence of food banks, food pantries and similar help in kind, throughout England and Wales; and what consideration they are giving, as a result of any such assessment, to reviewing their policies to address destitution, food and fuel poverty and ensure sufficient services to prevent poverty.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/2018", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Hylton"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Hylton"} ], "uin" : "HL17466"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }