The real cost of the summer holidays

The summer holidays have always required families to make things stretch further. Six weeks is a long gap to bridge between the demands of work and the reality of having children at home, but this feels increasingly difficult to dismiss as an annual inconvenience that families simply have to work around.

Making the summer work relies on having something to draw on. Money to cover the additional costs. Time away from work or enough flexibility within it. Family or friends who can help when neither of those things stretches far enough. 

Modern family life depends on having enough money, enough time and enough support around you to make everything work. 

When one of those is in short supply, things become harder. When all three are already stretched, six weeks can become almost impossible to absorb. 

​The school holidays impact the finances of a household 

During the school holidays, household costs increase. Food shopping increases. Childcare has to be covered. For a parent who can't afford childcare and therefore can't work the hours they need, the effect runs both ways: the summer costs more at precisely the point at which they earn less. There is no clever budgeting solution to that equation. 

For families whose children ordinarily receive free school meals, the additional food costs can be particularly difficult to absorb. In previous school holidays, government-funded vouchers have helped to ease some of that pressure.  But that support is no longer available. Eligible children can still access free activities and meals through the Government-funded Holiday Activities and Food programme, but the support is limited. This means families are having to stretch household budgets that already have very little room left in them. 

207 children supported this summer

By the time September approaches, the cost of school uniform is not the first additional expense families have faced. It comes after six weeks of higher food bills, childcare costs and, for some, reduced earnings.

Over the summer holidays, we supported 96 families with 207 children with food aid as the six-week break added to financial pressures already being felt across the household.

Of those, 52 families with 121 school-aged children needed additional support getting ready for the new school year. Through our Back to School Hardship Awards, we helped with the cost of uniform, shoes, PE kit and other essentials for September.

For one parent, that includes a child who now needs adult sizes, making their uniform and sports kit considerably more expensive. They work full time, and yet, there is simply no money left after their regular household costs to pay for it. 

For another parent, September follows a summer in which difficulty finding childcare has meant they haven't been able to work enough hours. 

Uniform didn't create the financial pressure in either household, it arrived on top of it.  

A hardship award means that particular cost can be taken out of the equation. A child can return to school with what they need without their parent borrowing more, missing another payment or cutting the food budget further to find the money. 

That is one reason our work extends beyond providing emergency food. ​

The gap between coping and crisis is getting smaller

Perhaps one of the clearest indications of what is happening locally is not simply how much support we're providing, but who is contacting us. 

On average this year, one new household has contacted the food bank for the first time every single day. 
These are people who have managed before. They've cut spending, used savings if they had them, borrowed, relied on credit, delayed payments or gone without themselves.
 
Those things create room in a household budget for a while. Eventually, there is no more room to create. 
Employment also doesn't necessarily provide the protection from that point that we might assume. Around 35% of the households we've supported this year include someone who is in work. 

A wage can be coming into a household and still not be enough. Hours fluctuate. Insecure and irregular work may not provide the same protections as permanent employment. Childcare can restrict the hours somebody is able to work. Illness can suddenly reduce an income. Meanwhile rent, energy, transport, food and every other essential cost continue. 
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The circumstances may vary, but they are bringing more households to the same point: there is no longer enough money to cover everything that needs to be paid for. ​

Why our support goes beyond food

That is also why our work doesn’t stop at providing emergency food. 

Food can make an immediate difference. If there isn't enough money for groceries this week, providing them removes one pressure straight away, but we also need to understand why that pressure exists. 

Our team takes the time to understand what is happening across the household and what might make a practical difference. That could mean helping someone access financial support they're entitled to, connecting them with specialist advice around debt, benefits, energy or housing, providing longer-term help through our outreach service, or offering a hardship award towards a cost the household simply cannot absorb. 

The Back to School Hardship Awards are one example of that approach. 

The aim isn't simply to respond to the point at which somebody can no longer afford food. It's to understand what has brought them there and what might help prevent one financial problem becoming several. 

Asking for help before things reach crisis

For many of the people we support, making the first call is difficult. 

They've managed before. They may be working. They may feel that somebody else needs our help more than they do, or that they should be able to sort the situation out themselves. 

We would much rather somebody contacted us before things reached breaking point. 

If you're struggling financially in West Northumberland, our team will listen to what's happening and talk through what support may be available. 

And if you're reading this because you want to help, financial support gives us the flexibility to respond to what an individual household actually needs – from emergency food to hardship awards and longer-term support. 

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*​Names and some details have been changed to protect anonymity. Stock images have been used for illustrative purposes.