More than 80 campaigners are urging the Government to ensure pregnant women as well as those with babies and toddlers receive the basic support they need to ensure their children grow up healthy.
The Food Foundation are calling on the Government to:
- Expand eligibility to include all families on Universal Credit (£244m) and extend the age-eligibility to include children under five years old (£175m)
- Increase the value of the Healthy Start allowance in line with inflation and price increases (£184m).
- Introduce auto-enrolment, with an ‘opt-out’ rather than the current ‘opt-in’ system to remove barriers faced by families in applying (£148m including existing cost).
The letter states: “There are children falling through the gap when they stop being eligible for Healthy Start but are not yet in receipt of free school meals, as the scheme is only available to children up to the age of four.
“This can easily be addressed by increasing Healthy Start eligibility to families with children under five years-old. There is a precedent in Wales when £1 million was included in the Welsh Government’s Final Budget 2022-2023 to help bridge this gap.
“There is also a need to increase the value of the weekly payments in line with inflation. April 2021, the Government increased the value of Healthy Start from £3.10 to £4.25. However, since then it has remained stagnant despite food prices having risen drastically and evidence that the value of the payments isn’t sufficient to cover the needs of beneficiaries.”
The letter has been signed by leading figures including:
- Anna Taylor OBE, executive director, The Food Foundation
- Tom Kerridge, chef and poverty campaigner
- Kath Dalmeny, chief executive, Sustain alliance for better food and farming
- Rob Percival, head of policy of food and health, The Soil Association
- Naomi Duncan, chief executive, Chefs in Schools
- Stephanie Slater, founder/chief executive, School Food Matters