Food bank use rockets as poverty tightens grip

Food bank use across the UK has soared, with a 13 per cent increase in referrals in the six months between April and September, compared to the same period last year.

The Trussell Trust’s food bank network distributed 586,907 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis compared to 519,342 during the same period last year; 208,956 of these went to children.

New analysis of Trussell Trust food banks in areas of full Universal Credit rollout shows that food banks in areas of full rollout for six months or more have seen a 30 per cent average increase six months after rollout compared with a year before.

Polly Jones, project manager at Oxfam’s A Menu for Change, said: “It’s an absolute scandal that families across Scotland don’t have the money they need.”