Parents in England skipping meals to afford school uniforms, survey finds

Many schools ask pupils to have more than five and in some cases 10 branded items, pushing costs as high as £400. Photograph: Johnny Greig/Getty Images

Parents in England are skipping meals and turning to buy-now-pay-later services such as Klarna in order to afford school uniforms before the autumn term, according to a survey.

Almost half (47%) of the 2,000 parents who took part in the poll said they were worried about uniform costs, which can run into hundreds of pounds due to expensive branded items, while more than a quarter (29%) said they had forgone food or heating to pay for uniforms.