The number of people using food banks to make end meet has tripled this year, according to new figures released today by the Trussell Trust.
The number of people using food banks to make ends meet has tripled in a year, according to new figures released today by the Trussell Trust.
355,000 people used foodbanks between April and September 2013, compared to 113,000 between April and September 2012, according to the Trust, which runs 400 food banks across the UK.
A third of those being helped were children and a third required food following a delay in the payment of their benefits.
“The level of food poverty in the UK is not acceptable,” said the Trust’s executive chairman Chris Mould.
“It’s scandalous, and it is causing deep distress to thousands of people,” he added
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that welfare reforms were pushing households into food poverty.
“One only has to look at the huge rise in foodbanks to see how little support is being given to people who fall on hard times. But instead of recognising the tremendous difficulties people are facing, ministers are blaming them for their plight.”
The government blamed the increase on a greater number of foodbanks.
However the Trussell Trust said that food poverty in the UK was getting worse.
“We’re talking about mums not eating for days because they’ve been sanctioned for seemingly illogical reasons,” said Mr Mould.
“Or people leaving hospital after a major operation to find that their benefits have been stopped or delayed.”
Food banks have risen dramatically under the coalition. 346,992 people received a minimum of three days emergency food from Trussell Trust food banks in 2012-13, compared to 128,697 in 2011-12 and 40,898 when Labour left office in 2010.
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14 Responses to “Number using food banks triples in a year”
Alec
James, you used that graphic before attracting critical appraisal from commenters hardly antagonistic towards foodbanks.
Looking closer we can see that figures from Gordon Brown’s misrule are included. Use of one provider’s foodbanks (hardly the only one in the country) may have tripled over the past year under the Coalition Government, but it was from an already large base. Taking this graphic on face value, however, consistency would require to concede that it went up more than 15 times under Labour from a small base level when publicity was minimal (and, as is commonly accepted, economic effects of one Government generally last unopposed one or two or more years into the next, 20 or 30 or more time).
I am emphatically not saying that the existence of foodbanks are distressing, but you’re setting yourself up for a falsification of your argument with this plainly biased presentation.
~alec
Snook Berry
I can’t actually here his tone, do you use food banks ?
Snook Berry
did you mean, aren’t distressing ?
Alec
You mean “hear”, I think.
As for the second bit, do you? Does the OP author? What difference does it make?
~alec