Storm as food banks claim they are feeding 1m people
THE country’s biggest food bank organisation yesterday claimed the number of people claiming free meal packages from its branches passed a million last year.
The figures from the Trussell Trust were seized on by Labour and the TUC as ‘shocking’ evidence that millions need emergency food because of low pay, the so- called bedroom tax, and stopped benefits.
But Tory benefits chief Iain Duncan Smith questioned the numbers, which he said were ‘ unverified’, and insisted that the best way to help families was to get people into work.
Another independent food bank organisation warned that such figures could be misleading because food banks are a new phenomenon and should not be used as a ‘political football’.
The row comes amid growing controversy over the spread of food banks – said by supporters to show that hunger is commonplace and need overwhelming, and by critics to show that when free food is handed out, people will always come forward to take it.
Yesterday’s report from the Trust put the number of people who were given three days’ worth of food at one of its 445 branches in the past financial year at 1,084,604.
Its UK director Adrian Curtis said: ‘Despite welcome signs of economic recovery, hunger continues to affect significant numbers of men, women and children. The latest figures highlight how vital it is that we all work to prevent and relieve hunger in the UK.’ The figures show a slowdown in the rate of expansion of numbers of those visiting foodbanks, with a rise of under 100,000 in numbers recorded since 2013-14, when there were 913,138 foodbank visits.
Last year the Trust claimed that numbers of visits by people claiming food parcels was almost three times the 201213 level of 346,992. In 2009-10 it recorded 40,898 food bank visits.
The claims have been disputed because the Trussell Trust counts numbers of food bank visits in which people are given three-day food packages, and not numbers of individuals.
This means an unknown number make repeat visits, and some analysts say the real total of people who went to food banks may be closer to half a million.
Research carried out by the Trust, Oxfam, the Church of England and other charities last year also found that low pay is only a minor reason for people going to food banks. It found that more than four out of five users live on state benefits and only one out of 40 users questioned was working on a zero hours contract.
A chorus of political leaders and charities lined up to criticise David Cameron over the figures.
Labour’s work and pensions spokesman Rachel Reeves said: ‘The shocking rise in the number of people relying on Trussell Trust food banks since 2010 shows the Tory plan is failing. David Cameron’s failure to tackle low pay, the bedroom tax and delays in benefit payments have led to over a million people depending on emergency food aid.’
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘This should make all of us ashamed, particularly those who claim everyone is sharing in the recovery.
‘It tells us that the Government has done grave damage to the welfare safety net. Vicious sanctions and benefit cuts – even for those who paid in all their working lives – are destroying the support any of us might need if we lose our job or have an accident.’
Oxfam poverty chief Rachael Orr said: ‘It is extremely worrying to see yet another rise in the number of people being forced to visit foodbanks in the UK.’
The picture of millions going hungry contrasts with the findings of the respected US-based Social Progress Index published earlier this month, which put Britain in first place out of 133 countries for its success in conquering hunger.
Mr Duncan Smith said the Trust’s figures were ‘unverified’. He added: ‘We are not going to take lectures from the party who presided over the deepest recession in living memory – whose incompetent economic policies hit the poorest harder than anyone.
‘The best way to help families provide for themselves is cut taxes and to get more people into work – and we’ve hot a strong record there: two million more people in work since the last election. It is only by continuing with our term economic plan that will we ensure more people have a job and the economic security that comes with it.’
The Oxford Foodbank, which is independent of the Trussell Trust network, urged caution in the interpretation of foodbank figures.
The organisation, which distributes food to other charities which provide meals, rather than handing it out to individuals, said: ‘We think that increasing use of food banks is an unreliable guide to underlying need because food banks are a new phenomenon – whereas food poverty is not.
‘As an organisation which draws it’s volunteers and donors from across the entire population of Oxford, we adopt a non-political stance. To do anything else would risk disenfranchising a section of that support.
‘The issue of food banks and food poverty should not be used in a game of political football when the statistical evidence is so potentially misleading.
‘We congratulate the Trussell Trust on the success of their operation but we also believe that successive governments have ignored the issue of waste in the food cycle. It is high time the OFB model of food bank – which prevents food being wasted and combats food poverty – is encouraged and replicated elsewhere.’
‘Get more people into work’ ‘Potentially misleading’