Council considers extending food voucher scheme

A council is expected to approve plans to provide supermarket vouchers during the school holidays to families receiving free school meals.

Cambridgeshire County Council indicated it wanted to extend financial support until September after the government's Household Support Grant ended, which helped low-income households with essential costs such as food and energy bills.

Papers being presented to the authority's Children and Young People Committee meeting on Tuesday stated the new vouchers would be worth £10 per child per week during the holidays - previously they were worth £15.

The council has earmarked £2.3m to pay for the vouchers, which it described as a "transitional arrangement".

The papers said the current plans would coincide "with the September 2026 revisions to free school meals eligibility".

The government has said that all households receiving Universal Credit, above the current £7,400 income cap, would be eligible for free school meals from September.

The vouchers for the Easter holidays would also be paid for from a new Crisis and Resilience Fund, the authority said.

There were currently no plans for the vouchers to be extended past September, but the papers indicated the council was working on other projects to "ensure families and households across Cambridgeshire can still access support in moments of need or crisis".

Update 9 March: This article originally included that the council had earmarked £1m to pay for the vouchers. This has been updated as the council has allocated £2.3m and part of the cost of the vouchers for the Easter holidays would come from the Crisis and Resilience Fund.

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