Your Letters: November 12

HOW YOU CAN HELP BARNARDO'S

Every year Barnardo’s supports thousands of children and families across the UK struggling to pay for the basics like food, heating, beds and suitable accommodation. We see children going to school hungry and returning to a cold home. We see how poverty affects a child’s physical and mental health and how it can affect them for the rest of their lives.

Here at Barnardo’s, we help families to keep the power on and the fridge stocked so that children can grow up safer, happier, healthier and more hopeful. But charities like Barnardo’s can only do so much. Research we recently published shows.

Food bank usage has almost trebled in the West Midlands, as a direct result of the cost-of-living situation, with more than a quarter of parents of children aged 18 and under struggling to provide sufficient food for their children over the past 12 months.

Our recent report Empty plates and cold homes: What it’s like to grow up in poverty in 2024, also estimates that there could be around 3.4 million children – three times the population of Birmingham – whose parents have struggled to provide sufficient food for them over the past year.

All over the country there are people like Sonia who, come the end of the month, has to rely on food banks to feed her two boys and prioritises food and heating over other essentials like wi-fi for her sons’ schoolwork.

The Government’s new child poverty taskforce is a glimmer of hope for the thousands of families Barnardo’s supports. But good intentions won’t be enough without bold action, so it is disappointing that the Government has not ended the unfair two-child limit on benefits in the Budget.