A mother-of-three said she has found it “scary” trying to keep up with the cost of sending her children to school.

Lauren Barford-Dowling, 27, from Luton, described the price of uniforms, shoes, meals and trips as “daunting”.

Level Trust, a Luton-based charity that provides free school supplies to families, said demand for its services had risen by up to 20% compared with last year.

“You want them to look their best, but it’s hard to keep up,” Ms Barford-Dowling added.

Ms Barford-Dowling has three children aged 10, six and five – and a fourth on the way.

She said branded jumpers and tops have risen in price, adding: “I worry about having enough money for all the essentials like shoes, trainers, trousers, dresses, tops.

“Three pairs of trainers cost over £100 – and they’ll be ruined in a couple of months. It’s scary.”

School meals also add to the pressure, she said, and her eldest child’s lunches cost £44 a month.

“When all three move up to Key Stage 2, I’ll be paying nearly £100 a month just so they can eat,” she added.

Ms Barford-Dowling said the Level Trust provided her children with free school shoes and trainers for PE.

Kerri Porthouse, the deputy chief executive of the charity, explained demand for the organisation’s services have risen.

“We’ve already seen an increase of between 15% and 20% compared with last year.

“That’s 200 more families in July and August alone. It’s a huge increase for a charity to cope with.

“Parents with children moving into reception or secondary often don’t realise how much uniform is needed until school begins. Then they come to us in a panic,” she said.

Research by the Child Poverty Action Group found it cost £1,000 a year to send a child to primary school and £2,300 for secondary.

Kate Anstey, the group’s head of education policy, said children from low-income families were dropping subjects because of the price of trips and equipment.

“Too many children are growing up in poverty, and it’s having a stark impact on their school day,” she said.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “No child should face barriers to their education because of their family’s finances.

“We are capping the number of branded uniform items schools can require, and from 2026 all children in households on Universal Credit will be entitled to free school meals.”

New analysis suggests seven million households are missing out on £24bn of financial help and support because of unclaimed benefits and social tariffs.

The research from Policy in Practice, a social policy and data analytics company, says awareness, complexity and stigma are the main barriers stopping people claiming.

This analysis covers benefits across England, Scotland and Wales such as universal credit and pension credit, local authority help including free school meals and council tax support, as well as social tariffs from water, energy and broadband providers.

The government said it ran public campaigns to promote benefits and pointed to the free Help to Claim service.

Andrea Paterson in London persuaded her mum, Sally, to apply for attendance allowance on behalf of her dad, Ian, last December after hearing about the benefit on Radio 4’s Money Box.

Ian, who died in May, was in poor health at the time and he and Sally qualified for the higher rate of attendance allowance of £110 per week, which made a huge difference to their finances, according to Andrea.

“£110 per week is a lot of money and they weren’t getting the winter fuel payment anymore,” she said.

“So the first words that came out of Mum’s mouth were ‘well, that will make up for losing the winter fuel payment’, which [was] great.

“All pensioners worry about money, everyone in that generation worries about money. I think it eased that worry a little bit and it did allow them to keep the house [warmer].”

In its latest report, Policy in Practice estimates that £24.1bn in benefits and social tariffs will go unclaimed in 2025-26.

It previously estimated that £23bn would go unclaimed in 2024-25, and £19bn the year before that, although this year’s calculations are more detailed than ever before.

“There are three main barriers to claiming – awareness, complexity and stigma,” said Deven Ghelani, founder and chief executive of Policy in Practice.

“With awareness people just don’t know these benefits exist or, if they do know about them, they just immediately assume they won’t qualify.

“Then you’ve got complexity, so being able to complete the form, being able to provide the evidence to be able to claim. Maybe you can do that once but actually you have to do it three, four, five , six, seven times depending on the support you’re potentially eligible for and people just run out of steam.

“Then you’ve got stigma. People are made to feel it’s not for them or they don’t trust the organisation administering that support.”

Although a lot of financial support is going unclaimed, the report does point to progress being made.

More older people are now claiming pension credit, with that number expected to continue to rise.

Some local authorities are reaching 95% of students eligible for free school meals because of better use of data.

Government figures show it is forecast to spend £316.1bn in 2025-26 on the social security system in England, Scotland and Wales, accounting for 10.6% of GDP and 23.5% of the total amount the government spends.

Responding to criticism that the benefits bill is already too large, Mr Ghelani said: “The key thing is you can’t rely on the system being too complicated to save money.

“On the one hand you’ve designed these systems to get support to people and then you’re making it hard to claim. That doesn’t make any sense.”

A government spokesperson said: “We’re making sure everyone gets the support they are entitled to by promoting benefits through public campaigns and funding the free Help to Claim service.

“We are also developing skills and opening up opportunities so more people can move into good, secure jobs, while ensuring the welfare system is there for those who need it.”

The advice if you think you might be eligible is to claim, especially for support like pension credit, known as a gateway benefit, which can lead to other financial help for those who are struggling.

Robin, from Greater Manchester, told the BBC that being able to claim pension credit was vital to his finances.

“Pension credit is essential to me to enable me to survive financially,” he said.

[But] because I’m on pension credit I get council tax exemption, I also get free dental treatment, a contribution to my spectacles and I get the warm home discount scheme as well.”