Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department has (a) allocated and (b) spent in each year since 2015 on ending food poverty.

The government is providing support to families worth over £22 billion in 2022-23 to help them with the cost of living. This includes:

• providing the majority of households with £350 to help with rising energy bills;
• helping people keep more of what they earn by cutting the Universal Credit taper rate and increasing Universal Credit work allowances, meaning that 1.7 million households will on average keep around an extra £1,000 on an annual basis;
• a further rise in the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour from April 2022. This means an increase of over £1,000 to the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the NLW.

The Spring Statement goes further, with the government announcing an increase to the annual National Insurance Primary Threshold and Lower Profits Limit to £12,570, a cut to fuel duty, and an additional £500m to help with the cost of essentials through the Household Support Fund.

We have increased the value of Healthy Start Food Vouchers and we are investing over £200 million a year from 2022 to continue our Holiday Activities and Food programme which is already providing enriching activities and healthy meals to children in all English local authorities.

In total, the government will provide £250 billion of support in 22-23 through the welfare system across the UK, including £40 billion through Universal Credit and £111 billion through the State Pension.

The latest published statistics as part of DWP's Households Below Average Income publication show the percentage of households that were food insecure has fallen from 8% in 2019-20 to 6% in 2020-21.