As schools across England and Wales empty for the summer, fresh research lays bare the pressure on low-income households. For many parents the break from routine brings not relief but a scramble to cover costs that subsidised meals, activities and childcare once eased.
The study, drawn from a poll of 2,000 parents with school-age children receiving Universal Credit, found that 78 percent viewed school as an important safety net that simply ends during the holidays. Three-quarters rely on subsidised meals. Nearly seven in ten depend on school trips, two-thirds on childcare, and 71 percent on sports clubs. When those structures vanish, the gap is filled by borrowing or doing without.
Reliance on loans and skipped essentials
At least half the parents said they were likely to turn to payday loans, extend overdrafts or sell possessions. The money would most often go on food, utilities or childcare. Over two-thirds worried about paying essential bills, with specific anxiety around childcare and children's activities running at 60 percent and 69 percent respectively.
Nearly all the families, 98 percent, reported that the cost of living had damaged their summer plans. Some avoided paid activities, others cancelled days out or trips, and almost a quarter abandoned holidays altogether. A striking 21 percent planned to keep children occupied mainly with electronic devices.
We know that for many families the summer holidays bring impossible choices – whether to pay for food, fuel, or activities for the children. Our Family Clubs provide vital support during this time, and we urge the new Prime Minister to make the cost-of-living crisis a priority. While the Great British Summer savings are welcome, more targeted support is needed to prevent families falling into debt.
Those are the words of Catherine Joyce, National Director for England North at Action for Children, in the joint release with Nationwide. Her organisation runs Family Clubs, backed by the building society, that offer play sessions, hot meals and local networks precisely when school support disappears.
Welfare models that trap rather than lift
The figures arrive at a moment when the shortcomings of heavy state dependency stand exposed. Families locked into Universal Credit find term-time props withdrawn without corresponding encouragement toward personal responsibility or stronger community and family buffers. The result is not temporary inconvenience but deepened debt and skipped meals, patterns that risk hardening across generations.