In response to the Government’s financial statement on Friday 23 September, Home-Start UK chief executive Peter Grigg, said:

“Families, especially those on the lowest incomes, are facing a crisis of higher fuel costs, increased prices for food and clothing, and rising mortgage rates or rent. Parents with young children also face the added burden of rising childcare costs.  It’s not clear from this mini-budget that there is any immediate financial help for families with children on low incomes. We know that when children grow up in households where low income causes real hardship as well as emotional strain, it has a devastating impact on early childhood development.

“What was needed today was support targeted at those who will struggle the most this winter as well as extra support for those community organisations who will stand alongside them and help them through the challenges they face.”

Home-Starts across the UK have seen families facing increasing financial challenges over the past year. In 2019 16% of Home-Start ran money management services. By 2021 this had risen to 49% of Home-Starts, while 50% of Home-Starts provided advice about benefits and Universal Credit. The charity expects these figures to rise again in 2022.

Research shows that 36% of families where the youngest child is aged 0-4 live in poverty.[1] Having a baby is incredibly expensive and families’ reduced ability to work full-time means that huge numbers of families are often pushed into poverty as they navigate their child’s earliest years. 

A quarter (25%), for example, have no savings and less than half of households (45%) could cover a large, unexpected expense (equivalent to one month’s income)[2].

Support related to pressures on finances are now the second more common service delivered by local Home-Starts after one-to-one volunteer support.

ENDS

[1] https://www.jrf.org.uk/data?f%5B0%5D=field_taxonomy_poverty_indicator%3A916

[2] abrdn Financial Fairness Trust has commissioned YouGov, July 22, (https://www.financialfairness.org.uk/docs?editionId=e2e69bf8-2b51-4ee1-bf44-a53df25cc775)