Tackling Poverty Update - 23 June 2025

Café Inc. returns!

Café Inc will be back during the summer holidays (Monday 7 July – Tuesday 19 August) for children and young people across Fife. Café Inc provides free tasty, healthy meals while stocks last when our schools are closed during the holidays.

There’s no need to book, just turn up. Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult, who can also have a meal if they wish, subject to availability.

The free lunches will be available in a number of schools and community facilities across the Kingdom.

Cafe Inc venues are listed on our interactive map, which is available along with other advice and help with the Cost of Living, at Cost of Living Support

Payment in lieu of Free School Meals

Parents and carers of children who receive Free School Meals based on benefit entitlement will get a payment of £12.50 per week (£2.50 per day), per child for the summer holidays.

The first payment, covering 6 days from 4 – 11 July, will be made into your bank account on Wednesday, 9 July 2025.

Children in Primary 6 or 7 receiving Free School Meals based on Scottish Child Payment will not receive this payment.

RTS Switch Off

At the start of July 2025 the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) will start to be phased out as it reaches the end of its operational life. Radio Teleswitches are a type of electricity meter which receives a radio signal to tell a meter when to switch between on-peak and off-peak rates.

Those who have these meters need to contact their energy provider to arrange to have them replaced. If they are not replaced, heating and hot water provision is likely to be affected. Figures from mid-May suggest that about 5000 Fifers still have to replace meters.

It was planned that there would be a nationwide and complete switch-off on 30 June, but Ofgem has now intervened and has an agreement with energy providers for a more cautious, customer-centric and phased switch off. The details of that are still vague and we are making enquiries to find out more, particular to understand more about the timing a Fife switch-off.

The priority is to step up our local communications to try to reach those who are yet not aware of the need to act. As part of that, we are providing a brief for front line workers, encouraging them to proactively engage with those clients and customers who may be impacted. For more information - The Radio Teleswitch Switch-off – Cosy Kingdom

Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill

This week The Government published the above bill that introduces key changes announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper in March 2025. The main points are:

  • An increase to the “Standard Allowance” of Universal Credit, which is the basic living costs everyone on UC receives.
  • A freeze in the rate of the “health element” so it will no longer increase with inflation. This is paid to those who have been found to have very limited capacity for work hue to health conditions or a disability.
  • New applicants for the health element from April 2026 will be paid at a lower rate. It will be £53.13 per week instead of the current £97.67. This rate will be frozen until 2030. Existing recipients will continue to receive the higher amount.
  • A new provision is introduced that if a current recipient of the higher payment stops being eligible (for example because they start work) and then return to the benefit within 6 months, then they will be awarded the higher payment again, not the reduced rate for new applications from April 2026.
  • A new “Severe Conditions Criteria” is being introduced. People who meet the criteria will not be re-assessed as the criteria will be judged as “constantly apply” and expected to do so for the rest of their life. People meeting this criteria will also receive the same higher rate of health element as existing claimants as they are exempt from the reduced payment being implemented to new applicants from April 2026.
  • Terminally ill people will also be exempt from the reduced payment award for new health element applications and will receive £97.67 per week.
  • The bill also contains equivalent cuts to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) matching these UC changes. Within Fife, Managed Migration from ESA to UC is fully underway and the process is expected to be completed before the introduction of these changes to ESA take effect.
  • There was no mention in this bill of previous proposals to scrap the Work Capability Assessment.
  • Managed Migration for Scottish claimants from Personal Independence Payment to Adult Disability Payment is under way in Fife and expected to be concluded before the details within this bill come into effect. Any updates from the Scottish Government relating to Adult Disability Payment will be provided in future editions of this update.

Welfare bill will protect the most vulnerable and help households with income boost - GOV.UK

As always, please get in touch with Sheena Watson (Fife Council) or Audrey Whyte (CARF) if you would like more information on any of this week’s content. We would also value any contributions you would like to make towards future editions.

Contact: Sheena Watson

Email: sheena.watson@fife.gov.uk