Cost of living: 100 children a day getting uniform help at west Belfast hub

More than 100 children a day have been kitted out with second-hand school uniforms at a hub in west Belfast in the past three weeks, the founder of a food bank has said.

Paul Doherty said demand was "staggering" and the number of people using the service was "frightening".

"We've been running this for a number of years, and this is the worst year," he told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster.

"We have seen many parents come to the door quite distressed.

"Many parents are telling us of financial hardship; turning to loan sharks; turning to debt as a result, that's the reality of what's happening in communities right now.

"It's quite shocking."

Mr Doherty said Foodstock was primarily a food bank.

However, he said that if people could not afford to put food on their table, heat their homes or put petrol in their cars, then they would struggle to pay for school uniforms.

"I saw a mother break down in front of her children and her children consoling the mother saying: 'It's okay mum, our friends' parents are doing this too'.

"I've seen many older children come in and get themselves kitted out as well in our uniform hub, which in itself is heart breaking."

But Mr Doherty said what was most striking thing for him was the number of working families affected.

"It's seeing the amount of working families - low income families - who are just coming under that threshold of being eligible for any sort of grants really struggling.

"They're not getting any support.

"Going forward, this is the sort of thing we need to look at in terms of how widespread this is and how many people this is impacting across the board."

What was heartening, he added, was the community response.

"What we have seen is a real sense of community solidarity in place of any mitigation by government, or even some of our schools in terms of this situation."

Emma Davies who runs the school uniform bank at Trinity Methodist Church in Lisburn told Good Morning Ulster that people from "all walks of life" used their service.

"I've had people coming to my door apologising for what they're driving because they're afraid in case people think that just because they're driving a big car that they've got money," she said.

"We have had people coming to us saying they had to get into debt, take Credit Union loans or borrow money off family," she said.

"We had one girl in and her child was supposed to start school on Thursday and wasn't able to start school at all because she didn't have a school uniform to put her in.

"We're finding that children are missing days or they're having to go into school wearing bits of uniform that don't belong to that school."

Ms Davies said that one mother said that she was having to colour in pieces of logo on her child's uniform because the school kept changing the colour of the logo.

She said some items of uniform were "extortionate".

Rachel Carlin of the Focus Project in the Creggan area of Londonderry said there had been a surge in demand for their free school uniform service compared to last year.

Hundreds of local families have availed of the service over the summer months, she said.

She added: "We are seeing a lot more working people than in previous years, people who are not able to claim grant support.

"We were fortunate to be given a lot of donations, but no sooner were the items coming in than they were going out," she said.

The Focus Project was originally set up to empower women through training and education.

But with families facing ever increasing costs post Covid, she said they've had to shift their focus to more practical ways of helping.

"We are very much working in crisis mode now and are really concerned as we head into the winter," she said.

In June, Education Minister Michelle McIlveen said she was spending just over £1m to increase the school uniform grant by 20%.

The Department of Education spoke previously of a "huge discrepancy" between the grant available to Northern Ireland families and other parts of the UK.

The department is reviewing the criteria for the uniform grant and for free school meals.