Huge rise in use of food banks: charity

Guardian News and Media/LondonThere has been a 200% increase in the number of people being fed by charity food banks during the first three months of the government’s welfare changes, according to the UK’s biggest voluntary food aid network.The Trussell Trust said the increase in the proportion of people referred for food parcels as a result of benefit problems was ‘clearly linked’ to social security changes introduced in April.More than half of the 150,000 people receiving emergency food aid from Trussell food banks between April and June were referred because of benefit delays, sanctions, and financial difficulties relating to the bedroom tax (a reform that will cut the amount of welfare benefit that people can get if they are deemed to have a spare bedroom in their social housing home) and council tax (taxation to pay for local services) relief abolition, it said. Trussell’s first-quarter findings challenge the government’s insistence that there is no link between welfare changes and the rapid increase in food bank use. “The reality is that there is a clear link between benefit delays or changes and people turning to food banks, and that the situation has got worse in the last three months”, said the Trussell Trust executive chairman, Chris Mould. Mould said food banks were helping more people who had had their benefit suspended “for seemingly illogical reasons” or who could not afford to pay the bedroom tax but were unable to move to a smaller home.Nearly one in five (19%) of all referrals to Trussell food banks in the three months to June related to benefit changes - up from 12% during the same period in 2012, the trust said.Benefit delays accounted for 33% of referrals, up from 31%. The Work and Pensions Minister, Lord Freud, earlier this month insisted there was no evidence of a link between rising food bank use and the government’s welfare changes, a claim subsequently challenged by food banks and poverty campaigners, including the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.Mould said: “We are calling on the government to listen to what’s happening on the ground, to realise that when the welfare system breaks down, it means families go hungry. Many of these issues are avoidable but they must be addressed urgently, before universal credit is rolled out in October”. Some food banks have claimed they are in danger of being overwhelmed by demand for food parcels caused by an explosion in the numbers of welfare benefit claimants referred to them by job centres.One London food bank said it had been forced to write to its local job centre to protest that it was struggling to collect enough food to cope with a rise in demand since April triggered by welfare changes . The Pecan food bank in Peckham, south London said jobcentres were failing to offer short-term cash advances to penniless claimants to tide them over until their benefits were paid, instead directing them to the food bank.The executive director of Pecan, Chris Price, said he was concerned jobcentres were unfairly offloading responsibility for the welfare of vulnerable claimants on to charities. “We are not part of the welfare system. But we have the fear of becoming part of the welfare system.”