{"id":15861,"date":"2018-08-03T11:40:05","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T10:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15861"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:19","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:19","slug":"tories-admit-secret-study-food-bank-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15861","title":{"rendered":"‘Too little, too late’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The unprecedented rise in food bank use in the last decade is a phenomenon that successive Tory governments have long buried their heads in the sand over.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just last year, Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg called food banks \u00e2\u20ac\u015buplifting\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/a> and said that their use had proliferated simply because more people knew they existed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 2014, then-work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith claimed that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthere was no evidence as to whether food bank use is supply-led or demand-led,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 essentially arguing that more people were using food banks simply because more food banks existed.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an open secret that the rise in food bank use is directly linked to Tory austerity policies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from benefit sanctions to the more recent botched roll-out of Universal Credit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and now for the first time it seems the Tories may be willing to admit it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ministers are now secretly planning to carry out a study to examine the role austerity policies have played in the rise of food bank use, a proposal leaked to the Guardian has revealed.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The draft proposal, a four-page document dated June 2018, outlines one of the key aims of the one-year study \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u015bto identify any areas of DWP policy or operational practice that may have contributed to a rise in demand for food bank services.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The proposal was marked \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Official \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sensitive\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and it is understood that some of those involved in the study, which is set to be published in October 2019, will be forced to sign non-disclosure agreements.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Labour MP Frank Field, who serves as chair of the work and pensions select committee, welcomed the proposed study.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a problem of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own making,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf this research gives the government a chance to get off this self-imposed hook, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing. But God help people in the meantime.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The study will collect evidence from interviewing 600 food bank managers and 500 food bank users, while a smaller group of food bank users who use the service frequently will also be extensively interviewed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The latest study comes against a backdrop of exponentially rising food bank use. The Trussell Trust, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest network of food banks, said that in 2013, it handed out 1.3m parcels of food to 660,000 people in 2017-2018 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c up 13 per cent from the year before.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Holiday hunger<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Demand soars in particular during the summer months, as children who rely on free school meals during term time must contend with holiday hunger. The latest figures from the Trussell Trust published today (August 3) <\/a>show that in July and August 2017, more than 74,000 three-day emergency food supplies went to children, up from about 70,000 in the two preceding months. Compounding the holiday hunger problem, the Trussell Trust has said, is the fact that food bank donations tend to dry up during the summer months while families are away on holiday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An MPs’ report last year found that holiday hunger is a growing problem <\/a>affecting up to 3m children each year. The All Parliamentary Group on Hunger found that the loss of free school meals during the summer months adds between \u00c2\u014130 and \u00c2\u014140 each week to struggling families’ costs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Local authorities and charities across the country have noted a growing demand for projects to tackle holiday hunger –\u00c2\u00a0projects that Unite Community branches, such as most recently in Norwich, have also become involved with.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Food bank managers, who are on the front line in the battle against holiday hunger, have reported too that government policies have played a significant role in pushing families over the edge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI had a woman in yesterday who was very emotional,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 one manager told the Guardian<\/a>. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bShe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just been put on universal credit and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be six weeks before she gets any money. So she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get her money on the first week the kids are back at school and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s panicking because she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford the uniforms.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Trussell Trust director of operations Samantha Stapley said that while food banks and other charities have a role to play in combatting hunger,\u00c2\u00a0the government must step up to support people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFood banks cannot, and must not, be a long term to solution to hunger at any time of year,” she said. “No one should face going hungry, and although our network will be doing all they can this summer to help families struggling to make the money they have stretch to cover the essentials, no charity can replace people having enough money for the basics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere are changes we can make as a nation to help during the holidays, but if we are to protect each other from hunger whatever the time of year, we have to go further than that. We know particular groups of people are most likely to need a food bank, so let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s make sure no one is swept into destitution. Our benefits system can, and must, act as an anchor to protect people from being pulled into poverty.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Halt Universal Credit call<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner agreed as he slammed the Tory government for denying the truth about food banks for so long.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories have known all along that the shocking rise in food banks over the years is a direct result of their cruel austerity policies,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat they are now undertaking a study to investigate the havoc they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve wreaked on the most vulnerable is welcome but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too little, too late.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow many people \u00e2\u20ac\u201c children no less \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have to suffer the degradation of poverty, the pain of hunger, the anxiety of not knowing what the next day will bring, before this Tory party fesses up to the central role it has played in wrecking people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lives?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is already plenty of independent research showing that not only do Tory austerity policies and welfare reforms push people from \u00e2\u20ac\u0098just about managing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 into hunger, homelessness and despair, but this body of research shows too that these reforms are not cost-effective and simply don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite calls on the government to halt Universal Credit now.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stay tuned on UNITElive\u00c2\u00a0next week as we report how Unite Community is stepping up to fight holiday hunger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The unprecedented rise in food bank use in the last decade is a phenomenon that successive Tory governments have long buried their heads in the sand over.   Just last year, Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg called food banks \u00e2\u20ac\u015buplifting\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and said that their use had proliferated simply because more people knew they existed.   In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[480,164],"wps_subtitle":"Tories secretly admit their policies may have caused rise in food bank use","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15861"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25999,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15861\/revisions\/25999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}