REAL LIVES Welfare Let them eat soup
More and more families are turning to food banks – and welfare reforms will see even more do so
Cans of soup and beans replaced fat cats when Unite took its latest campaign to Parliament, in February.
For instead of highly paid company bosses being the butt of union anger, banks of a different kind were in the spotlight – food banks.
The number of food banks has trebled since 2009, with over 300 outlets giving food to around 250,000 people this year – although the figures could be even higher.
As well as ramming home the “national scandal” that so many people can only survive on food handouts, Unite was warning that things can only get worse when benefit changes come into effect in April.
Under the welfare uprating bill – surely one of the most wrongly named pieces of legislation in history – benefit increases will be capped at 1 per cent for each of the next three years.
Unite believes workers as well as the unemployed and single parents will suffer when the Bill becomes law, with people likely to cut back even more on essentials such as food.
Working families are set to lose £3,000 a year by 2015 because of cuts to tax credits and child benefit, while single parents will have £260 a year less to spend because of the uprating cap, Unite warned.
A soup run with a difference was set up opposite Westminster, with Unite officials making a pyramid of cans, and displaying other food, in a food bank stall (pictured), as they briefed MPs and Lords on the impact of the Bill.
29 uniteWORKS March/April 2013
But there is little chance of derailing the legislation, despite opposition from Labour MPs. Luciana Berger (Liverpool Wavertree), who said food banks were opening up across the country, including unlikely areas such as Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey (pictured) said food banks were the “scandal of our age”, adding, “It is shameful to witness such a huge growth in the number of food banks in what is supposedly one of the richest countries in the world.
“The Prime Minister sneaked into a food BY ALAN JONES
bank in his own constituency and sneaked out again. He should be ashamed.”
The Trussell Trust set up its first UK food bank in Salisbury in 1999 and has opened hundreds in recent years, including three a week in 2012. Many people relying on them are low income families hit by a crisis such as redundancy, reduced working hours or an unexpected bill.
The term ‘breadline Britain’ might seem over the top to describe the lives of people struggling to make ends meet, but it’s clear that growing numbers will be relying on food handouts.
Mark Thomas
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