Nurses turn to food banks when ‘boiler is broken’
MOST nurses using food banks are doing so because of a broken “relationship or boiler”, the Education Secretary suggested yesterday.
Gillian Keegan said that “emergency” situations were usually responsible for the demand for the scheme amid the cost of living crisis.
Almost one in six (14 per cent) of nurses and health workers are using food banks to feed themselves and their families, according to a survey carried out by the Cavell Nurses’ Trust.
The Trussell Trust, a charity working to end food bank use, issued 2.1 million food parcels in the UK in 2021-22, while more than nine in 10 independent food banks have reported rising demand since the start of the year.
Asked if she was “comfortable” with nurses using food banks, Ms Keegan told Sky News: “I go to my food banks quite a lot and ask, ‘why is it, what is it, what is the reason why people are there at food banks?’
“And quite often when you go to food banks, it will be people… Something will have happened, something will have broken down, either a relationship or a boiler or anything.
“They are usually there in an emergency situation. I know there was a lot of focus on increasing the starting salary for nurses, [on] making sure that lower-paid people in the nursing profession were also increased.
“But there is no doubt that people are worried, very worried, about inflation.”
Ms Keegan added there was no point in nurses going on strike over their pay demands, as the economic situation had been caused by rising prices. “I would
‘Something will have happened, something will have broken down, either a relationship or a boiler’
urge the nurses to continue those discussions, but the reality is if we gave massive above-inflation rises, not only would we have to raise a lot more money, but it would [fuel] inflation.”
At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, was asked by Barry Sheerman, a Labour backbencher, how he would ensure no children “were going to bed [at] night with no food in their tummies”.
Mr Sunak said: “The absolute best way to ensure that children do not grow up in poverty is to ensure that they do not grow up in a workless household.”