Around a quarter of parents say they missed meals within the last year to feed their children instead
The continuing cost of living crisis means many Britons will begin 2023 struggling to make ends meet, while foodbank use is soaring across the country as people turn for help in putting food on the table.
Now a newly released YouGov poll shows that 14% of all Britons had to skip meals in the last 12 months because they could not afford to eat – and one in nine Britons (11%) had to skip a meal in the three months prior to the survey. Among working Britons these figures are similar, at 17% and 13% respectively.
The figures are drawn from data that finds one in four Britons (25%) have ever skipped meals as an adult because they couldn’t afford to eat. Six in ten of the Britons who say they’ve missed meals as an adult (60%) say they did so within the previous 12 months, including 47% who say they skipped a meal in the last three months.
A quarter of parents missed meals within the last year to afford to feed their children
Overall, 24% of British parents with children under the age of 18 say they have missed meals within the last year in order to afford to feed their children instead, including 18% who did so in the last 3 months and 13% who had done so in the last month.
Older Britons are the least likely to say they have skipped meals in childhood
While 13% of Britons who say they had to miss food in childhood because their family could not afford to eat, older Britons are slightly less likely to say (or remember) that this happened to them when they were young.
Among those aged 55 and above, 10% say they missed meals when they were children, compared to 14-19% of those aged 18-44.
