OPFS response to UK Spring Budget 2024

Marion Davis, Head of Policy, Communication and Strategy said:

“We are devastated that the Chancellor has yet again failed to take action to tackle child poverty or reduce the growing chasm between the income & wealth of the richest and everyone else. He has also failed to listen to the families in despair who we hear from every day across all of our community services.

“The Chancellor’s General Election sweeteners to the UK electorate fail to address the everyday struggles of low-income families. Every day, single parents face the reality of ever rising food prices, increased use of food banks, higher mortgage rates and rents.

“There was a failure to recognise long term solutions to single parent hardships. Universal Credit will still not meet the cost of living pressures and protect people from further debt and disadvantage. The Chancellor failed to recognise the injustice and discrimination of the two child policy, the benefit cap and the young parent penalty.

“We are also concerned as to where will the axe fall in public sector cuts in order to fund the National Insurance sweeteners. We believe that today’s announcements will not address the major lack of funding and resourcing of public services which in turn impact on the health and wellbeing of the families that we support. The burden of support to single parent families continues to fall on family organisations such as OPFS and others. It is likely from today’s budget that the challenge we face in supporting individual families will not end anytime soon. There is no compassion in a budget which provides for the bare minimum in terms of support to low-income families without guaranteeing that everyone will be able to provide the basic essentials for their families.”