A previous payment scheme introduced during Covid was scrapped in 2023
An MLA is hoping that his Private Members Bill will reinstate a ‘holiday hunger’ payment for more than 90,000 children in Northern Ireland who are entitled to free school meals.
Sinn Féin’s Danny Baker said that while he understands that his bill is not a “silver bullet”, he hopes there will be the political will from other parties at Stormont to back his plan to support families who are entitled to free school meals.
A previous scheme, which was introduced during the Covid pandemic in 2020 saw families who earned below the support threshold receiving a payment of £27 per child during the school holidays. However, this was scrapped in 2023 due to a lack of funding.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Danny Baker said: “t he bill is about ending holiday hunger, so anybody who’s in receipt of free school meals would be supported over the holiday periods. So it’s to help the most vulnerable children and families in our society through difficult times.
“It happens year on year, so it isn’t just when there’s a pot of money there, there was support during Covid, but when that money went. I would always say the low-hanging fruit, some of the programs, whether it’s through Education or the Department for Communities, they fall to the wayside.
“I want to put this in legislation that it’s an inescapable pressure that children are supported during the holiday periods.”
In June 2025, it was announced that families who receive Universal Credit and have up to £15,390 of annual household earnings (after tax) can apply for free school meals. This is a rise from £15,000 in 2024/25.
Your child will be entitled to free school meals if they are at school or pre-school (full-time) and you get any of the following:
- Universal Credit and your household’s net earnings (after tax) aren’t over £15,390 per year
- Income Support
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- guarantee element of State Pension Credit
Mr Baker’s Holiday Hunger Bill has already completed the consultation stage, and Stormont Speaker Edwin Poots has given him the green light to begin drafting the legislation before it is brought to the Assembly floor.
Reflecting on the impact that scrapping the initial scheme in 2023 had, Danny Baker said: “Our community and voluntary sector, our youth clubs do a lot of heavy lifting, particularly over the holiday periods. Whether it’s Lagmore Youth Project or you go up to Monkstown or wherever across the north.
“They provide that support, and it’s the on-the-ground stuff that really brings it home to me, so it was last year when I volunteered with the Lagmore Youth Project, and it was up in White Rise where we ran a breakfast and lunch program.
“The sad reality of it was that there were children within our community who were putting food in their pockets to bring home for their siblings. That’s the reality out there; poverty is still part of our communities. It’s probably the biggest barrier to many of our young children reaching their full potential, and that’s where we have to support them.”
Danny Baker said that this bill is “only one piece of the puzzle” in tackling poverty and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable.
“There’s too many children that are growing up in poverty a nd they can’t reach their full potential because of it, and we need to address that and a lot of that will come down to early interventions and each political party, each minister, each member has a part to play, and that was why I brought this forward.
“For me, this is only the beginning of how we tackle child poverty. I think it’s so important that we identify the earliest possible interventions to support families, so that can be people in receipt of free school meals getting that support during the holiday period, but it’s then how do we move forward to making sure that we can support as many families, working families, all families, as best we can, and I think t hat has a change of mindset of where we prioritise the budgets.”
While time for Private Members legislation is limited in this mandate, Danny is confident that with the support of other parties, he could have the legislation passed by this time next year.
“I personally don’t see any reason why we couldn’t be sitting next year with this in place. Again, it needs political support as well. It’s all well and good for me to bring forward a private member’s bill, but if other political parties and members don’t support it, then it will fall, but I would struggle to see why they could justify not supporting this private member’s bill,” he finished.
Video by Harry Bateman/Belfast Live
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