Welfare Spending
Debate between John Hayes and Stephen Flynn(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Alison McGovern
I will mention a few contributions by the Children’s Commissioner for England, and then I will give way further.
We heard from the commissioner that children think that free breakfast clubs and school meals are important. That is why we have begun the roll-out of free breakfast clubs in all primary schools and last month announced the expansion of free school meals to all on universal credit, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament.
Young people told the commissioner about how they absorb their parents’ money worries. One 16-year-old girl said:
“I worry about money quite a lot. I see myself as quite approachable to my mum so my mum will tell me absolutely everything.”
Children need to grow up without that stress, so we have introduced the fair repayment rate for universal credit households, so that a debt to the Government does not keep families poor, which will help 700,000 households with children.