Hunger ‘chronic’ in Britain, charity chief executive warns

Food poverty in Britain is becoming a chronic problem and not just an acute situation, the head of Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) said this week.

Helen O’Brien, chief executive of the social action wing of the bishops’ conference, was commenting on a new report which calculates that more than 20 ­million meals were given away by food banks last year – a 54 per cent increase on the previous 12 months. Ms O’Brien said the ­figures were consistent with what CSAN members had been ­reporting.

“Our members are seeing families increasingly having to turn to emergency food assistance to get by due to falling wages, rising essential costs and the gradual erosion of the welfare safety net.

“Chronic hunger is unacceptable in the UK today.”

The report, “Below the Breadline”, by Oxfam, Church Action on Poverty and the Trussell Trust, described the situation as “a damning indictment of an increasingly unequal Britain where five families have the same wealth as the poorest 20 per cent of the population”.

Significantly, the report notes an increase in people turning to food banks in apparently affluent areas such as Cheltenham, Welwyn Garden City and the North Lakes in Cumbria.

In some cases the number of users has doubled and in others trebled.

The report blames the increase on “a perfect storm” of changes to the social security system, ­benefit sanctions, low and ­stagnant wages, insecure and zero-hours contracts and rising food, energy and housing costs.

While food prices have increased 43.5 per cent in the past eight years, food expenditure as a proportion of total household expenditure has continued to rise.

People featured in the report spoke of the struggle to feed themselves and of deteriorating health. One woman described her situation as “like living in the 1930s and through rationing”, while another said “I wouldn’t eat for a couple of days, just drink water”.

Research shows that over half a million children in the UK are living in families that are unable to provide a minimally acceptable diet. One of the authors of the report, Niall Cooper, director of Church Action on Poverty, said: “Protecting its people from going hungry is one of the most fundamental duties of government. Most of us assume that when we fall on hard times, the social secur­ity safety net will kick in, and prevent us falling into destitution and hunger. We want all political parties to commit to reinstating the safety net principle as a core purpose of the social security system, and draw up proposals to ensure that no one in the UK should go hungry.”