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Welfare cuts forcing more families into food poverty, say charities (10 June 2014)

Date: 10/06/2014
Duncan Lewis, Family Solicitors, Welfare cuts forcing more families into food poverty, say charities

A report by three charities has blamed the government’s welfare reforms for an increase in the number of families using food banks.

The report claims that the introduction of Universal Credit is driving food poverty.

Universal Credit combines several benefits and caps benefit at a single weekly payment of £500 per household.

Universal Credit is being rolled out across the UK to replace out-of-work benefits like Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support, as well as Housing Benefit and Child Tax Credits.

The report from charities Oxfam, Church Action on Poverty and the Trussell Trust says that in 2013, more than 20 million free meals were handed out to families who would otherwise have gone hungry as a result of food poverty.

Conservative Work and Pensions Minister Lord Freud previously caused a storm by saying that he did not know why families were using food banks.

Lord Freud – a former investment banker – is the government minister who coined the term the” Bedroom Tax” to describe the benefit penalty for housing benefit claimants living in social housing where there is a spare bedroom.

He has suggested that more people are using food banks because more food banks exist.

The three main food providers, the Trussell Trust, Fareshare and Food Cycle, say, however, that the government’s welfare cuts – which came into effect last year are becoming the “driver of food poverty” among families.

The Trussell Trust runs 420 food banks across the UK – last December, 347,000 people used the trust’s food banks, compared with an average of 26,000 per month five years ago.

The three main food providers say that in 2013-2014, there was a 54% increase on meals being handed out, compared with the previous year.

ITV News says that the government has disputed the findings of the report into food poverty. A government spokesman said:

“It's simply not possible to draw conclusions from these unverified figures drawn from disparate sources.

“They cover a wide variety of provision, including food redistributed to places such as community cafés, lunch clubs for the elderly and children's breakfast clubs, which are frequented by all sorts of people.

“This report also overlooks basic facts about the strength of our welfare system.

“We provide a vital safety net, spending £94 billion a year on working age benefits to support millions of people who are on low incomes or unemployed.”

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