“Last year, 23 million meals were given out by food banks and other charities to people too poor to feed themselves – a 44 per cent increase over the previous 12 months.
BELOW THE BREADLINE
Their plight has been exposed in ‘Below the Breadline’, a newly-published report into food poverty by Oxfam, Church Action against Poverty and The Trussell Trust which calls on the Government and all political parties to reinstate a social safety net as a core principle of the UK’s welfare system.
LOW AND STAGNANT WAGES
The report attributes the steep rise in those needing food handouts as a ‘perfect storm’ brought about by changes in the welfare system, benefit sanctions, low and stagnant wages, and insecure and zero hours contracts which make planning impossible for people living on a financial knife edge.
RISING ENERGY PRICES
Add rising energy prices to the mix, and the choice between eating and heating means many people have literally no idea what – if anything – is for dinner tonight… Food poverty can happen to anyone, and it can happen fast.
UNEXPECTED ILLNESS
Unexpected illness, a sudden redundancy or the break-up of a long-term relationship can mean the difference between making ends meet and finding the cupboard is bare.
And even prosperous neighbourhoods will have pockets of hidden poverty where people are struggling to survive.
HIDDEN POVERTY WHERE PEOPLE ARE STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE
Their plight is particularly shocking in a country such as the UK, which ranks as the seventh richest in the world.
But although wealthy, Britain is also deeply divided. The ‘Sunday Times’ Rich List reported in May that the 1,000 richest people in the country have seen their wealth double over the past five years. But during the same period, millions of others have traded down to the cheapest food products from the budget shops.
UK FOOD PRICES INCREASED BY 43.5 PER CENT
They go without ‘treats’, they have given up meat – and now they have reached the point where their only remaining option is simply to buy less food. Some of those interviewed for ‘Below the Breadline’ eat only one meal a day: more than half a million children in the UK live in families who are unable to provide a minimally acceptable diet.
Despite their best efforts, many hard-working people simply do not earn enough to live on.
And it’s not hard to understand why. UK food prices increased by 43,5 per cent over eight years to July 2013; UK housing costs are among the highest in Europe and the price of energy rose by 37 per cent between 2010 and 2013.
EXORBITANT HOUSING COSTS
But as prices for food staples rise inexorably, stagnant wages and insecure work contracts mean many households are bringing home less every month than their essential outgoings.
HUNGER AND FOOD POVERTY
In the past year an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger and Food Poverty has been set up to look into the issue, and the Work and Pensions Select Committee is investigating how social security reforms and the increase in food aid may be linked.
But the three charities behind ‘Below the Breadline’ say more needs to be done to discover the causes behind the almost 50 per cent increase in food bank usage which has taken place over the past year.
WOMEN GO HUNGRY TO FEED THEIR CHILDREN
They also called on the Government to look at how food poverty affects men and women differently. Many women go hungry to feed their children, and lone parents – 89 per cent of whom are women – are twice as likely to live in poverty as two-parent families.
‘Protecting its citizens from going hungry is one of the most fundamental duties of Government,’ a spokesman for the charities said…’Cuts to social security since April 2013 have had a severe impact on poor and vulnerable families across the UK.’
DESTITUTION AND HUNGER
…In light of their findings, the three charities are pressing the Government to develop an action plan to address food poverty in Britain… They also want to see parties across the political spectrum commit to increasing the minimum wage to a ‘living’ wage by 2020.
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‘A family in destitution, in a country as wealthy as this, is a disgrace that should not happen. I think the current welfare system does need reform and I don’t disagree on the principles with which the Government is working. But it cannot be at the cost of casting people into destitution.’ (Cardinal Vincent Nichols)
‘People who are using food banks are not scroungers who are cynically trying to work the system. They are drawn from the six million working poor in this country, people who are struggling to make ends meet in low-paid or bitty employment.’ (Rev. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and patron of Cambridge City Foodbank)”
– This article entitled “There can be no place for food poverty in Britain” was published in “The Catholic Universe” issue Friday, 13th June 2014. For subscriptions please visit http://www.thecatholicuniverse.com (external link).
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