As the pandemic hits many families’ finances hard, and the extra costs of winter take their toll, let’s not add excessive school uniform costs into the mix, says Dustin Hutchinson


Even prior to lockdown, nearly one in eight families cut back on food and other essentials to meet the cost of school uniforms. This was just one of the findings from research published by the Children’s Society before the pandemic struck (2020).

This is hardly surprising given that more than four million children in the UK are living in the grip of poverty, holding them back in many aspects of their education and their life outside school (SecEd, 2020a).

The pandemic is likely to have made child poverty worse, when so many have seen their incomes decrease or have lost work entirely. Coupled with this, costly fuel bills during the winter and extra Christmas spending make this time of year especially difficult, and send many family budgets spinning out of control.

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