Gillian Keegan
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said some cost the same as a family holiday abroad.
Conservative ministers first suggested there was a problem with maths in the UK back in 2012.
It comes as half a million workers stage the biggest day of industrial action in decades.
Downing Street said the education secretary was expressing a "personal view".
“I was making decisions for myself at 16," Gillian Keegan said.
The Conservative MP said nurses on £30k using food banks had “something wrong” with their finances.
Gillian Keegan's account was targeted on Christmas Day.
"I don’t think there’s a privilege to being white on its own," the minister said.
Health workers in other unions are also voting on industrial action over pay.
Gillian Keegan spoke out as she was grilled on whether nurses deserve a pay rise.