Opinion with Chichester Foodbank - Reflecting on The Budget: a chance for change for local families
As the first frosts settle on car windscreens and the evenings seem to draw in far too quickly, I find myself thinking about how sharply the cold exposes the realities so many families face. Winter has a way of making everything feel more urgent: the heating that can’t be switched on, the meals stretched further than they should be, the quiet anxiety parents carry as bills climb while daylight shrinks.
This year, though, December brings something else as well - something we don’t often get in the world of hardship and crisis support: a sense of genuine, cautious hope.
The recent Budget announcement on removing the two-child benefit cap is one of those rare political decisions that will change lives in tangible ways. Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research and Impact at Trussell put it plainly: this “bold step” will protect hundreds of thousands of children from growing up in hunger and hardship.
The figures are stark - removing the limit is expected to lift 670,000 people out of severe hardship by 2027, including 470,000 children. That’s not a statistic you skim past; that’s classrooms, playgrounds and households across the country where life will feel a little less precarious.
For those of us working at the frontline, this is not abstract policy - it’s the kind of shift we’ve been urging for years. It’s a recognition that children should not be penalised for the size of their family, and that dignity should not be rationed.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation echoed this, highlighting that real progress happens when policy gives families the “vital building blocks for a secure, dignified life.” Their call for bolder, longer-term interventions rings true. If we want a future where foodbanks are no longer needed, we must address the roots of poverty: insecure work, insufficient safety nets and the rising cost of essentials.
Here at our foodbank, we see all these pressures daily. The need is still higher than it was five years ago. Change takes time; winter, unfortunately, does not wait.
But as we make our way through these dark, cold weeks, I hold onto the hope that this moment, this policy change and this national shift in tone marks the beginning of something better. And as we pack our Parcel of Hope boxes this Christmas, it feels good to do so in a season where hope isn’t just a sentiment, but a possibility.