School uniforms ‘unaffordable now’ as parents use uniform banks to clothe children

Parents are struggling to buy school uniform during the cost of living crisis as families turn to uniform banks to help provide clothes for their children.

It comes as budgets are stretched by soaring energy bills and rocketing inflation – now at 10 per cent – while wages are failing to keep up with the pace of the increase.

As the new school year approaches, parents are facing a financial hit from uniform costs.

Hollie Phillips, a mother of two from Hertfordshire, said she would not be able to afford to send her six-year-old son to school without resorting to handouts.

Have you used uniform banks? If so email zoe.tidman@independent.co.uk

She said the uniform – including PE kit and school bag – comes to around £300 in total.

“It’s awful,” she told told Sky News. “There are nights I don’t sleep, because I’m thinking how am I going to be able to afford anything?

“There’s so much that we can’t do because I have to think, ‘Well, he needs his uniform for school.’”

Uniform banks are also helping to provide clothes to working families who would struggle to afford them otherwise. “It’s not just people who are struggling or people on benefits, but people in full-time employment,” Neil Charlick, who runs a uniform bank in Kent, told Sky.

Gillingham Street Angels started out as a soup kitchen, but has now started to provide uniforms to families as well. “We’re giving out at least a couple of thousand items a month at the moment, and I think that’s just going to get bigger,” Mr Charlick, its chief executive, said.

James Bowen, from school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “We know that an increasing number of families have come under financial pressure due to the rapidly rising cost of living. Schools will be giving more thought than ever to ensuring that uniform remains as affordable as possible.”

The Independent revealed last year that parents were facing a postcode lottery over whether they could get financial help for school uniform costs from their local council.

The government introduced new rules last November in a bid to keep school uniform costs down, with schools being made to follow guidelines including keeping compulsory branded items to a minimum and making sure second-hand options are available.

Education union bosses said at the time that schools tended to follow the guidance already, before it was mandatory.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “School uniform must never be a burden for parents or a barrier to pupils accessing education.”

As well as taking steps to keep uniform costs down by requiring schools to follow the guidance, the spokesperson said the government knows “schools and families are facing increased cost pressures more broadly” and is providing more than £37bn to help households in the greatest need.