More and more families are needing to use baby banks to get by.

Research shows that, this year alone, more than 35,000 families have used baby banks to obtain vital items such as bottles, clothes, cots, nappies, wipes, prams and pushchairs. Comparable to food banks, baby banks give away basic baby items – largely donated by members of the public – that are crucial to people in need.

But the people using baby banks are not only families living in poverty or those on benefits but those escaping domestic violence, refugees, families affected by the switch to Universal Credit and even working parents who can’t earn enough to cover rent, food and utilities on top of the necessities required to bring up a baby.

Former Labour welfare reform minister and Labour MP, Frank Field, told the Mirror, ‘All too many families are being crippled financially by the cost of basic items for their babies,’ adding that baby banks are a sign that show us ‘how the face of poverty is changing. It is hard-up families who are paying the price for the economic upheaval and austerity of the past decade.’

Read more at https://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/family/where-to-find-your-local-baby-bank-458436#VaVTgSjEGRbVHe0p.99