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Fears of an end to free school meals over summer

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date01 July 2022
Publication titleHuddersfield Daily Examiner
Earlier this year the council was given £3.7m in Household Support Grant funding by the government to cover the April to September period

The money supports vulnerable people with payments and grants such as vouchers to help meet daily costs of food, clothing, and utilities.

The authority will get a further £3.7m to cover October 2022 to March 2023.

There are who were £30 for two now will be for six Council

However, finance chiefs have said a third of the total must be allocated to supporting pensioners receiving a council tax reduction.

That's approximately £100 per household to around 11,350 homes, totalling £1.23m.

Some of the remaining cash has already been spent - including £540,000 to cover free school meals over the Easter break.

That leaves the council facing a shortfall over the summer holidays with officers warning the money remaining is "insufficient to both meet an equivalent provision for free school meal support for those entitled and provide crisis support for those that are not when they are in need."

A council insider told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We've been told that an amount will be given to each child qualifying for the school free lunch. There are 17,000 [eligible] kids in Kirklees who were being paid £30 for two weeks back in 2020/2021 and now with all the inflation will be paid £70 for six weeks. On old figures that's £20 short per child, plus inflation." A report laying out the scenario is set to go before the decision-making Cabinet next week. It says...

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