City facing poverty ‘epidemic’ as pleas for crisis grants soar

THOUSANDS of hard-up residents have applied for crisis grants across Glasgow.

A report into food inequality across the city showed that between April 1 and July 31, this year, 9177 emergency cash applications were received by Glasgow City Council.

The average emergency hand-out from the Scottish Welfare Fund was £83 according to the report, which also estimated that one third of households in the city are in fuel poverty.

It comes amid a warning by Labour councillor Jim Kavanagh that many residents will continue to struggle in the years ahead.

Mr Kavanagh said: “These problems have been there for a substantial amount of years and, to be brutally honest, they’ll stay there.

“We’ve got budgetary cuts that will have to be introduced further down the line.

“My fear is that we’ll have an epidemic.”

An inquiry is ongoing as the council attempts to find new ways of battling food poverty following the introduction of universal credit.

It will call on a range of studies, including one from the Trussell Trust, which estimates food-bank use will increase by 30 per cent following the universal credit roll-out.

Another survey which was discussed was carried out by the NHS and found that 11 per cent of Glasgow residents who took part had experienced at least one episode of “food insecurity”.

The council has already taken steps to help ensure kids are fed by extending free school meals to P4s.

But SNP councillor Elspeth Kerr said: “Universal credit is a reserved matter.

“We can put money to it but we’ll never be able to mitigate the full effect.

“Until we can control it ourselves we’re not going to be able to stop it or take the effect away completely.”

Elaine Ballantyne, chair, added: “Food poverty and food insecurity is something that we must tackle in Glasgow, and the council has looked at a variety of ways in which we can help some of our most vulnerable citizens.

“Together we need to understand what’s happening locally and find out the scale of our problem in our city and respond accordingly and that is what the food inquiry has been set up to tackle.”