‘I would struggle to say that with a straight face’: Food banks criticise the Bank of England’s chief economist
The Trussell Trust says 93% of the UK public think everyone should be able to buy enough food for their households
The Trussell Trust has found that over 750,000 people used a food bank for the first time in the last 12 months. The charity says this is a 38% increase on the figures from the previous year.
Their nationwide network also handed out almost three million emergency food parcels to struggling households — the most ever distributed in a single year.
These stark fingers describe a grim reality that Cara Hilton, a spokesperson for the organization, calls a “cost-of-living emergency.” She says that more needs to be done by both the Scottish and UK Governments.
She said: “We can see in our statistics that the Scottish Child Payment is starting to make a difference, but the Scottish Government needs to go further and increase that payment from £25 to £40 a week as soon as possible.
“The UK government also needs to increase Universal Credit to cover the essentials, as it’s just not right that people on universal credit can’t afford to buy the basics.”
The charity distributed double the amount of food parcels in their network last year than five years ago. Andrew Forsay, from Good Food Scotland, says this is because everyone is feeling the cost-of-living crisis.
He said: “As recently as five years ago, we would have seen two main groups of people seeking help from food banks. It tended to be young families with larger numbers of children and single people with perhaps a long-term health condition or a disability.
“Whilst we still see large numbers of people from both those groups, these days we can see anyone and everyone seeking help, of all ages, in of and out of work. It really is a broad cross-section of society seeking help because we are all being clobbered by the rising cost-of-living.”
Food banks have criticised comments by the Bank of England’s Chief Economist, Huw Pill. His remarks were in the headlines at the same time as Trussell Trust’s new figures. Pill, who has an estimated annual salary of £190,000, said Britons should “accept that they’re worse off”.
Forsay said: “I would struggle to say those words with a straight face to somebody who, like we’re hearing today, is having to rely on food parcels to stave off hunger.”
