A crisis made in Downing Street: one MILLION people visit food banks

Almost one million people had to rely on a food bank for emergency food aid in the past year.

Is that what the government calls a recovery? asks James Bloodworth

Almost one million people had to rely on a food bank for emergency food aid in the past year, according to figures released today by the Trussell Trust.

913,138 people received three days’ emergency food from Trussell Trust food banks in 2013-14, compared to 346,992 in 2012-13. According to the chairman of the Trussell Trust, these figures are the “tip of the iceberg”.

To put it starkly, in the sixth largest economy in the world almost a million people are now unable to afford enough to eat, a savage indictment of the coalition if ever there was one.

And be in no doubt, this is a crisis created in Downing Street.

83 percent of Trussell Trust food banks surveyed reported that benefits sanctions have caused more people to be referred to them for emergency food. Half of referrals to foodbanks in 2013-14 were due to benefit delays or changes.

As the graph below demonstrates, under the coalition the number of people relying on food banks has skyrocketed.

Food banks April 2014j

Not only has the coalition presided over this shocking increase, but Britain’s food banks have been blocked from claiming millions in EU aid after Tory MEPs voted against the measure in the European Parliament.

Earlier this year the European Parliament voted by a large majority today to endorse EU funding which would have made a £3 million fund available for food banks in the UK. However Tory MEPs blocked the measure in a move that “defied belief” according to one Labour MEP.

Demonstrating just how out of touch they are, some conservatives have blamed the growth in the number of people using food banks down on their proliferation – i.e. there are more food banks open so more people are therefore visiting them as a source of free food. As Robin Aitkin wrote last year for the Telegraph:

“…a new service is being offered to more and more communities – and, naturally, people are using it. What is more, the sustained media interest in food banks has acted as a kind of giant pro bono advertising campaign; suddenly everybody knows about them.”

Even worse, former Tory MP Edwina Currie was roundly criticised last year for claiming that food bank users were only using the resource because they were spending all their money on…tattoos and dog food.

Despite the evidence-free claims coming from some on the right, the huge growth in the number of people visiting food banks has more to do with government measures such as benefit sanctions than with fecklessness or ‘shirking’.

These are not scroungers seeking a free meal, but rather people with no means left with which to purchase food.

It’s also worth noting that food prices have risen significantly in recent years. According to consumer group Which?, over the last six years food prices have risen over and above general inflation by 12.6 per cent, and nearly half (45 per cent) of consumers are spending a larger proportion of their available income on food than they did 12 months ago.

Yesterday, with the release of the latest inflation figures, we heard yet more triumphalism from the government about their economic plan “working”.

Certainly we should welcome the fact that wages are catching up with inflation after four long years of falling living standards, but the idea that the so-called ‘cost of living crisis’ has now abated completely conflicts with reality. As was reported on Monday, one in three people believe they are just one paycheque away from homelessness and – as we learn today – almost a million people are unable to afford even enough to eat.

Is that what the government calls a recovery? Perhaps if you own a large house and work in Canary Wharf it is. But for many people the struggle goes on.

11 Responses to “A crisis made in Downing Street: one MILLION people visit food banks”

  1. TruthBeatsLies

    This so-called “Recovery” is solely for the rich or comfortably-off.

    Capitalism, after all, is surely the inimitable ‘Root of all Evil’ – IOW: a system catering entirely for the “Lovers of Money”…!

    Those who don’t like that, really shouldn’t vote Tory ever again… should they??

  2. davidhill

    Nothing to do with benefit changes, its the dire state of debt and not enough economic activity for liveable wage paying jobs to be the created.

    Food Banks unfortunately will be with the people of the UK in perpetuity and where they will increase even more dramatically over the next 20-years. This has been caused by a huge increase in inequality brought about by corporations and supported by inept decision-making by western governments. Indeed just two articles below outline why this has happened.

    1. Vast Corporate & Political Power in the West have Impoverished the People of the USA and the EU over the past 30-years – and unfortunately it will get far worse as things will not change for the better – http://worldinnovationfoundation.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/vast-corporate-political-power-in-west.html

    2. Global Poverty and Inequality are the Reasons for Wars and our Politicians and the Super Rich should Clearly Understand This ! – http://worldinnovationfoundation.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/global-poverty-and-inequality-are.html

  3. Sparky

    What a load of crap. I was unemployed for nearly three years in the 1990s and I managed to feed myself. Of course, you’re poor. It’s subsistence living. You struggle to make ends meet. If food banks had existed then I would have used them. It’s simply a question of supply. If ‘bicycle banks’ started opening, supply people with free bicycles, you could write a similar article about the shocking state of Britain where a million people don’t have enough cash for a bicycle. You create something, people will use it. You create more of it, people use more of it.

  4. treborc1

    So it is nothing to do with welfare reforms then it just people getting something for nothing then.

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