Schools were able to arrange for people to have free mobile data if they didn't have broadband, as long as they could get a mobile signal, there was enough for them to access remote learning. There were also laptops, Raspberry Pi desktops and many other initiatives carried out by schools that were dependent upon school staff working throughout lockdown in addition to sorting the lunch provision for five days each week (and in addition to working in the schools with vulnerable children and teaching).
Nobody ever remembers or mentions the free computers or internet. But they'll remember that the five lunches for a child weren't enough to feed an entire family for a week when the parcels were started if the school thought that a catering company would be able to get better prices than them buying vouchers direct (which also happened before the funding was available, many spent thousands out of school funds almost immediately) and the supermarket voucher scheme was in the process of being upscaled from an employee rewards scheme to a national social support system.
If SB lived with her and she had been genuinely poor, there was a good chance that there would have been food vouchers, a free computer and internet access for the boy.
But she wasn't, so didn't. And he didn't. So didn't.
