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Families of children entitled to free school meals face "challenges every single day" due to the axing of holiday food payments.

That is according to a parent of a child with special educational needs (SEN) who used to receive the payment.

Department of Education (DE) analysis found that cutting the "holiday hunger" grant has a disproportionate impact on disabled children.

The school holiday food grant ended in March 2023 to save money.

The grant of £27 per child each fortnight was to help families of more than 93,000 pupils entitled to free school meals with the cost of feeding them during school holidays.

The families of about 28% of all school pupils in Northern Ireland were eligible for the grant.

Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK where there is no support available during the school holidays, although support has been reduced elsewhere, according to a recent analysis by BBC News.

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