The Home Office has failed to secure £600,000 for victims of modern slavery, and there are fears that further funding could also be lost

Home Office blunders have led to vital poverty funding being put at risk.

A catalogue of errors by civil servants has led to a loss of access to £600,000 of EU funds earmarked for the most deprived people in Britain and has put a further £2.9 million at risk.

The €3.4bn European Aid to the Most Deprived fund was established as an attempt to help member states meet a poverty reduction target of “lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and social exclusion” by the end of 2020.

However the UK has been left as the only EU member to fail to deliver the aid, and is yet to make an application for the remainder of the fund that is available.

The money had been earmarked for breakfast clubs in schools in deprived areas, but then the government changed its mind and decided the cash would be used to support victims of modern slavery.

However the Home Office did not prepare the necessary paperwork to secure agreement from Brussels for the funding, with the UK failing to claim the initial £600,000 available for the project.

Further targets for applying for the funding have also been missed, and there are concerns that further funding could be missed out on.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Working with the European Commission, the Home Office has worked hard to secure funding to support victims of modern slavery and those being resettled in the UK. Given time constraints and commission rules, we were not able to claim all of the funding before the deadline.

“We are grateful to the commission for contributing to our important work supporting some of the most vulnerable.”