Assembly election: SDLP promises £1,000 for every child in future fund plan

Party leader Colum Eastwood said the fund would then be invested in clean, green technology businesses that each child can withdraw from when they turn 18.

The 40-page document outlines the party’s focus on addressing the cost-of-living crisis by providing direct support to every household, ensuring that working families receive more good quality childcare and that no child grows up in a household without savings.

Launching the manifesto in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency, Mr Eastwood said: “The manifesto we have launched today is an ambitious programme for change that has at its heart a plan to tackle the biggest challenge facing every family, household and community in Northern Ireland today – the cost-of-living crisis.

“The emergency that hard-working families are waking up to today, and every day, needs to be addressed with the same urgency and at the same scale that the Covid-19 crisis demanded.

“We will not stand by as people are forced to turn off the radiators, to sit at home in their winter coats, to cut back on food for their families while Stormont’s bank accounts burst at the seams with hundreds of millions in unspent money, which is obscene.

“We’ll fight this crisis and put people first by getting an emergency support payment to every household worth at least £200. We will provide people who have been hit hardest by this crisis with up to £500 in direct payments. And we will make sure that no child goes hungry by getting more than £1,200 to an average family with two children on free school meals between now and December.”

The Foyle MP added: “But the cost-of-living crisis needs more than just cash intervention. That’s why we are putting working parents first with a pledge to increase free pre-school childcare from 12.5 hours per week to 30 hours. And we’ll end the injustice of children growing up in a household with no savings by creating a first-of-its-kind Children’s Future Fund that gives every child a £1,000 investment in clean, green technologies that they can withdraw when they turn 18.”