Fenland food bank warns of Cambridgeshire families 'at breaking point'
The county council has set out its budget plans to help those in poverty
A food bank manager in Cambridgeshire believes more families could be at risk of a crisis if more people aren't being supported.
The county council plans to spend ÂŁ3 million to continue providing holiday food vouchers for all children eligible for free school meals, as well as ÂŁ2.2m on other anti-poverty measures such as supporting vulnerable people with claiming welfare benefits they're entitled to.
These are part of a raft of budget proposals for the 2024-25 financial year, and a public survey on the plans has now closed.
But the council, which is looking to bridge a ÂŁ2m funding gap, has said this is perhaps "the toughest year to set a balanced council budget".
Becky Cooper is the manager of March Foodbank:
"I think the proposals are fantastic that they'll put money into an anti-poverty campaign, but I'd like to know what that means in real terms rather than 'we've got ÂŁ2m and we're going to use it for this'," she said.
"I've been in post for 10 months; we started in March last year with 12-15 clients a week.
"It increased over the summer which we expected, and the two weeks leading to Christmas I received 50 families a week and I've now got 38 families booked in with (food) vouchers and I know I've got people that haven't got vouchers.
"Mortgages are still going up, utilities have gone up again; there's going to be a point where families are going to hit breaking point and we're going to have another crisis on our hands."
'Serious problems'
In December, the government confirmed more than ÂŁ64 billion would be given to councils in England to spend on running services in 2024-25 as part of the provisional local government settlement.
But councillors heard this funding would not be able to cover high inflation and demand in areas such as children's social care.
In a public survey, the county council also asked for views on its plans to raise council tax to 4.99%.
Previously, county council leader Cllr Lucy Nethsingha said: "While we didn’t want to propose taking a full increase this year when times are tough, we have nowhere else to go, particularly as in the next four years we are also predicting a gap of around £20m each year.
“I echo our officer’s views about how difficult it has been to draw this proposed budget together in the toughest year for council finances that I can remember.
“Levels of demand and inflation have been higher this year than had been anticipated, and if they continue in this vein in future years, we are going to face serious problems."
Some positives to take
Becky said that despite the uncertainty on exactly how the budget proposals could come into place, there are some good points.
"We've been campaigning for years to be listened to and Cambridgeshire has always been one of the lower-funded authorities," she said.
"I think our level of deprivation is high, lots of people have manual jobs and on minimum wage, so it's good the county council are looking at ways to support everybody.
"I want to see support for those that don't fit the criteria, so extending the criteria for the Household Support Fund so that gives people energy and shopping vouchers to working families who might just be over the limit to claim anything but do need that additional help."
Councillors are due to debate and agree the final budget plans at a full Cambridgeshire County Council meeting on February 13.