East Ayrshire Council: Struggling families to get helping hand with school meals debt

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Struggling East Ayrshire parents who have accumulated school meal debt since the onset of the pandemic will be given help.As well as agreeing a plan to deal with up to £15,000 which has been transferred to the council’s debt recovery system, East Ayrshire Council has agreed to put in place a number of provisions to support families manage their school meal payments.A spokesperson for the council said: “East Ayrshire Council can confirm that a review of historic school meal debt will be undertaken.“The council will look to support families that are experiencing hardship and who are unable to repay the outstanding debtors account that has previously been issued.”While there was a consensus that there was a will to help those families who have been struggling with school meal debt, they took two days to finally reach an agreement.Councillors of different stripes had broached the subject previously, with Labour group leader, Councillor Maureen McKay, formally requesting the write-off of more than £30,000 in historic school meal debt in September.It was agreed that a full report on how parents could be helped with the management of their school meal payments, taking into account that some informally used the system ‘overdraft’ like credit, regularly falling into arrears before then paying those arrears off.The Ayrshire Live app is available to download now.Get all the local news in your area – plus features, football news and the latest on the coronavirus crisis – at your fingertips 24/7.The free download features the latest breaking news and exclusive stories while you can customise your page with the sections that matter to you.The Ayrshire Live app is available to download now on iOS and Android.The initial report was