{"id":10769,"date":"2016-12-07T17:05:59","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T17:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10769"},"modified":"2016-12-08T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T10:12:08","slug":"we-must-help-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10769","title":{"rendered":"‘We must help each other’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unable to work, Karen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only lifeline has been Employment Support Allowance (ESA), the disability and illness benefit which allowed her to get by. But her life suddenly turned upside down when her ESA was stopped.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a simple mistake that could be fixed in a day or two \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the benefits which she was entitled to were withheld for five entire months.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI spent two and half of those months with absolutely nothing because I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where to go,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she told UNITElive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During this time, Karen severely deteriorated \u00e2\u20ac\u201c her weight dropped by\u00c2\u00a0three stone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She eventually found out about a local Trussell Trust food bank. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t until she walked through the door that it had dawned on her the desperate situation she was in.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI completely broke down crying,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Karen is one of the millions each year who fall through the system\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cracks and turn to foodbanks for help out of desperation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in December 2015 alone, the Trussell Trust food bank network provided 133,734 three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis; 56,779 of these went to children.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf it weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t for foodbanks, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be here today and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fact,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Karen said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Austerity to blame<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Karen isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t alone — foodbanks save countless lives in a country blighted by government austerity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why Unite is teaming up with the Mirror’s Real Britain and the Trussell Trust in our Hope Not Hunger Christmas appeal in support of foodbanks, which has in only days already raised thousands of pounds from Unite members across the country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The campaign was today (December 7) given a boost by dozens of Labour MPs, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) and shadow chancellor John McDonnell, outside Parliament at a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pop-up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 food bank. The MPs gathered alongside foodbank users, Unite community members and those working and volunteering for the Trussell Trust.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Labour MP for Gateshead Ian Mearns told UNITElive that foodbanks need the public\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s support.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great sadness to me that foodbanks have to be used in this day and age,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile we really wish we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need them, the fact that we actually do need them means we have to support them \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as simple as that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mearns laid the blame of growing hunger in the sixth richest nation in the world squarely on the shoulders of austerity and a broken, punitive benefits system.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the last six years [when austerity started], the number of foodbanks has increased twenty-fold,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne of my constituents went fifteen weeks waiting for a Universal Credit payment. How are people supposed to survive?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe whole programme of austerity is a political choice,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Mearns added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government can always afford tax cuts and then they penalise people at the bottom end of society. This is a political choice and we must reject that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most shocking of all, new figures released today (December 7) have shown that work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even full-time work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spare many the necessity of having to turn to foodbanks. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation<\/a>, an astonishing 55 per cent of people in poverty live in working households.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mearns said this shows that the Tory government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so-called National Living Wage \u00e2\u20ac\u015bisn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t working\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too low and there are far too many loopholes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have to have a minimum wage structure in place so that companies are no longer being subsidised to pay their workers extremely low wages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe fact that people are doing a full week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work and only being able to survive with the aid of foodbanks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely scandalous. We have an economy that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strong enough to do much better than this.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Knock-on effects<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Karen agreed that it was choices made in Parliament that brought her to the desperate place she was in.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the government especially \u00e2\u20ac\u201c need to understand what is really going on in this country,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey need to stop being selfish and look out for other people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of work to do \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but the change has to start over there\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, she said, pointing into the distance \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u015bin Parliament.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Karen told UNITElive that the devastating situation she found herself in didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t end when she appealed her ESA benefits being stopped and won, after which her payments were backdated for the five months she missed out.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat most people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realise about people whose benefits are stopped is that there are knock-on effects — it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost impossible to get back on your feet even after your benefits are reinstated,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor example, I had to go to court to sort out my council tax payments. My credit hit rock bottom during those five months and still hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recovered. My health has deteriorated and my doctor has had to drastically increase my medication.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Trussell Trust foodbank network understands these long-term, knock-on effects, and so has in recent years expanded its work beyond only giving emergency food parcels to being a real community hub.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne thing we realised is that many of clients were coming to us because they were massively in debt, so we set up a debt advice centre,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 explained Nathan Jones, a Trussell Trust foodbank manager in London (pictured, middle). \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe were also one foodbank that ran a pilot scheme called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Eat well, spend less\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, a course which teaches people healthy cooking on a budget.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jones noted that through \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Eat well, spend less\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, the foodbank linked up with people who ran local markets, who in turn donated fresh produce.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd through those donations, we set up a weekly community lunch,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo not only were our clients learning cooking skills but they were sitting down with a bunch of different people form the local area in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098paid-what-you-can-afford\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lunch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Community spirit<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this community spirit that makes Trussell Trust foodbanks a potent antidote to austerity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s everyone-for-themselves ideology.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jones recounted how one of his clients, a woman with children he knew who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d fallen on hard times, was referred to the foodbank and given vouchers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt took her ages to finally come and when she did, she just stood by the doorway \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bring herself to come in.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSince I knew her, I walked out of the foodbank and put my arm around her and led her in. Even when we were packing the parcels, she kept saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098I can clean for you; I can work,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she just felt she had to give something back.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe had to explain to her \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t charity; you need the support and we can provide it for you,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Jones added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite members — who have, since the Hope Not Hunger campaign was officially launched less than a week ago, already raised nearly \u00c2\u014110,000 — are at the forefront of supporting foodbanks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite community member Malcolm Ede attended his first ever Unite event today along with MPs in support of the Christmas appeal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He encouraged everyone to donate to Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s campaign to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhelp our fellow people\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all part of the human race \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we should be helping each other,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two parts to this \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one is to help those who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve fallen through the cracks, and the other is to fight to change the system that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s causing all this in the first place.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey urged everyone to support the campaign as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite members have shown time and again that they are very generous when it comes to remembering people in crisis,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is shocking to think that in the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sixth richest nation, Trussell Trust foodbanks will feed over 130,000 people this Christmas. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than double the number of people fed when we last teamed up with the charity in 2013.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNo person should have to choose between heating and eating this Christmas but without the support of local foodbanks up and down the country many thousands will.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out more about how you can donate to our Hope not Hunger Christmas appeal here.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n