Salford’s £15 a week school holiday food vouchers to continue after council debates cutting funding

Struggling Salford families will continue to benefit from £15 per week school holiday food vouchers after councillors debated cutting the funding. 

To support those on lower incomes, the town hall approved plans to continue providing food vouchers to eligible children for the remaining six weeks of school holidays up to Easter 2025.

At the cabinet meeting held on Tuesday (October 8), members discussed three options regarding the £15 meal vouchers, which are funded by the Government’s Household Support Fund, including cutting them altogether after May 2025, cutting them to £10 a week or leaving the current provision as it is.

Continuing with holiday voucher provision at the current rate of £15 per week per eligible child for the remaining six weeks of the 2024/25 school holidays would result in a cost of just over £1.4m whereas reducing the rate to £10 per week would have saved £474,000

Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett said: “The Household Support Fund has been an essential support system, offering our residents much-needed help with food and heating, and ensuring that children on free school meals do not go hungry during school holidays.

“This funding will help the most vulnerable in our communities and I’d urge anyone who is struggling financially to get in touch and see if you can benefit. The Household Support Fund is in place to support you.”

This comes after a growing number of families find themselves struggling to make ends meet with nearly 16,000 children in the city eligible for free school meals as of April 2024.

Across the city, 24 percent of children were eligible for free school meals in 2019, a figure which has increased to 35 percent as of this summer’s census.

The Government have recently announced a further six month extension to the Household Support Fund up to March 2025.

Salford’s allocation has been confirmed at £2.73m, the same level as previously with a small contribution from carried over funds, this will be sufficient to cover the proposed allocations.