I feel a deep sense of relief and hope hearing about the government's plan to extend free school meals to all children in households receiving Universal Credit from September 2026. As a parent and carer, I know how much pressure school costs can add to an already stretched budget. This change could save families like mine up to £500 per child each year, which is significant when every pound counts.

More importantly, this move acknowledges that no child should go hungry at school. It’s heartbreaking to think of children trying to learn while hungry, and this policy could help lift 100,000 children out of poverty.

However, I do worry about the delay until 2026. Families are struggling now, and immediate action would make a real difference. I also hope the government considers automatic enrolment to ensure no eligible child misses out due to administrative barriers.

This policy is a positive step towards addressing child poverty, but I hope it's just the beginning of broader support for families in need.

I feel a deep sense of relief and hope hearing about the government's plan to extend free school meals to all children in households receiving Universal Credit from September 2026. As a parent and carer, I know how much pressure school costs can add to an already stretched budget. This change could save families like mine up to £500 per child each year, which is significant when every pound counts.

More importantly, this move acknowledges that no child should go hungry at school. It’s heartbreaking to think of children trying to learn while hungry, and this policy could help lift 100,000 children out of poverty.

However, I do worry about the delay until 2026. Families are struggling now, and immediate action would make a real difference. I also hope the government considers automatic enrolment to ensure no eligible child misses out due to administrative barriers.

This policy is a positive step towards addressing child poverty, but I hope it's just the beginning of broader support for families in need.

I think that the things already announced (the breakfast club trials and the change of free school meal eligibility) are good starts but neither are going to make a big difference to child poverty rates. It feels like the government are kicking the can down the road by delaying the strategy because they're going to bottle it and not do enough and they think they can hide this amongst all the other things that will be coming out in the autumn budget. The rates of child poverty in this country are far far too high and it costs the country in many ways to allow it to continue any longer than necessary. They need to make changes now. Six months is a long time in the life of a child growing up in poverty.

It absolutely infuriates me that the government politicians earn the amount of money they do per annum and are only just expanding FSM to UC households when EVERY child should have access to free meals.

Every Single Child should have access to FSM, it should not even be a debate this day & age.

Parents are LEGALLY OBLIGATED to send their child to school, therefore the government should be LEGALLY OBLIGATED to feed each child!

I’m reading the news today about free school meals, amazing, but all they’ve done is change the criteria to make sure that the people who need it most get it. They are saying it will LIFT 100,000 children out of poverty, NO IT WON’T! It just puts food in their tummy to learn better.

IT WILL NOT LIFT THEM OUT OF POVERTY.

Oh my god

I am so frustrated

Really happy that the government have announced free school meals for all kids on universal credit, it should be all kids but I suppose it is a step towards that direction, but this starts in September 2026! There’s the rest of this school year and another to go before a bit of help? The crisis is now, it’s like the message from them is it’s ok kids just stay in poverty for over a year more it’s not like you matter that much anyway! Mixed bag of emotions from this.

How am I managing housing costs quite an interesting question to discuss right now. I've just obtained my Refugee status, I mean, you squirt. I just put in my application for class Ojos hope it goes through in time and being housed at a hotel at the moment and it also has its own challenges. I'm not able to cook for myself, I have coffee time. The space is small.

really quite challenging with mental health issues, looking forward to my own house but

What I hear from the rest of my friends, delays in getting repairs, depending on the condition of the house. If it's an old building or a new one,

oh, it's really challenging. So you have to have a job that can be able to put up with the costs.

To be able to pay for them else, you wait for council to come and manage them for you, but I'm not yet there yet. Thank you.

I’m currently off work sick due to burnout. My mental health is not good. I made the mistake of reaching out for mh support. I wouldn’t have done that unless it felt urgent because I’m autistic /nd and I know there isn’t really a mh service for us. I was told by the crisis team that I don’t meet the criteria. Another door shut in my face. No concern for how I can care for my disabled children while I get back on my feet either. Every system that should support, feels abusive to me. I’m taking things one day at a time and I’ve been doing some writing. It’s helping to organise the chaos in my mind.

The World as It Could Be

Being a changemaker sounds big and bold. But in reality, it often looks like this:

Crying quietly in your car after a meeting that went nowhere. Juggling your own survival while trying to help others feel seen. Getting up, again and again, because deep down you still believe people — and systems — can do better.

Over the years, I’ve worn many hats: advocate, organiser, community builder, mother, mentor, friend. Sometimes all at once. And every role has come with both deep joy and heavy emotional weight. There are moments that lift me — when someone says, “I didn’t think anyone saw me, but you did.”When a parent carer breathes out for the first time in weeks. When a woman in our community stands a little taller because she finally feels like she belongs. Those are the wins that don’t make headlines.

But they’re everything.

I hold a vision in my head all the time — a version of the world that’s fairer, softer, more human. Where people are supported, not shamed. Where our differences aren’t weaponised, but understood. I see glimpses of it every time community comes together — in rooms full of laughter, in shared rage, in collective hope.

But here’s the thing I’ve learned: for some, this kind of work is just a job. A role they clock in and out of. For people like me, it’s a way of being. It lives in my nervous system. It wakes me up at night. It bleeds into every conversation. It’s not just what I do — it’s who I am.

There’s an urgency, a fire, a constant drive to make things better

because the alternative feels unbearable. And that comes with a cost. Behind every joyful event, every workshop, every bit of change we push for — there’s frustration. Setbacks. People quick to judge, quicker still to believe false narratives. Systems that feel like brick walls. Constantly having to explain your worth, your need, your vision.

Sometimes it feels like you’re shouting into the wind. Sometimes it feels like no one is listening.

And still, you carry on. Because you have deep empathy.

Because you see people, not just who they are now, but who they could become if they were given a chance.

Because here’s what I know deep in my bones: This country would flourish if everyone had the chance to reach the potential I see in them.

I see brilliance in people who’ve been dismissed. Leadership in those written off.

Innovation in those surviving systems never built for them.

But that kind of thriving isn’t possible while so many barriers still exist.

Poverty. Prejudice. Red tape.

A lack of support, of belief, of care.

We don’t lack potential! we lack access!

And until that changes, people like me will keep fighting to open doors that should’ve never been closed.

I’ve learned this work can’t be done alone. You need people beside you who share your values.

Who show up even when it’s hard.

Who don’t ask you to shrink, soften, or explain your fire.

They’re your anchor.

Your mirror.

Your reminder that you’re not imagining it.

this world can be different.

And so I keep going.

Because I’ve seen too much light to let the darkness win.

Because change is slow, but not impossible.

Because I’m incapable of stopping.

Mental health is really complicated, most people take it for granted because it can't be seen or felt by an onlooker. People don't take you seriously until it's worse.

Most people push you to the extreme to ensure you never come out of the mental health struggles, instead of helping.

Well I booked a holiday for 4 days last year for this year which I paid over 12 months even though it was cheap, the universal credit told me that I had to tell them and they will see if I'll be sanctioned or not. What in the world! I've never known anything like it. It's wrong. I work full time – nothing but stress since I have been full time.

There are lots of things to talk about when it comes to housing expenses especially with people living in Home Office accommodation. I have been living in the Home Office accommodation for over 4 years. No renovation has been done ever since including repainting of the house, replacing broken cupboards and floors.

I’m currently stuck in a private rented flat, I can’t afford to start work when my child turns 3. I am better off on benefits than I am working, with no security in my housing.