Escalation Of Food Banks

[vakayu]

This is a dreadful situation,they have said this is the one "business" rising in UK,with twice as many outlets as Debenhams.Such a terrible admission and the chancellor and government are saying the welfare changes will help people to be better off,and many are working families not unemployed .

[emmie]

this is not a new thing, it is getting worse though.

[Old_Geezer]

There should never be a need for them in any civilised wealthy country. There should be sufficient welfare safety net for those without income, and employers should be forced to pay a living wage to anyone putting in the accepted number of hours to qualify as a "full time" employee rather than play off one human being against another for lowest wage.

[emmie]

some people choose to live on the streets, those people will also access these food banks. A so called living wage has to be paid for by the employer, if that employer is a small business and a government directive is issued which says pay all your workers £10 per hour, that could well put them out of business, so no one has a job. Those accessing food banks may well be people fallen on hard times because of the recession, that the cuts that have been made have been harsh, and by and large to quick for people to sort themselves out. If one person in the family loses their job, and they have children, then you have a whole domino effect going on. Been there and done that.

[youngmafbog]

OG, move to China then.

vak, what terrible admission, it's a fact, no one is admitting to anything.

I would like to understand why this is. I would like to understand why these families dont have the cash to buy food.

Poverty is a relative thing. No one in this country is in real poverty, unless you count not having the latest iPhone/iPad/plasma tv counts as poverty.

Do these outlets check why the food is being asked for, do they check the person's employment status? It would be only too easy to go get free food and spend you hard earned on booze or whatever. I have no objection to this but you need to be careful how you interpret this statistic.

[woofgang]

I understand that some benefits are paid in arrears so a claimant might have to get through a month before receiving it. Things like food banks help with this.

[flump1]

Through no fault of my own I was left with no income when my benefit was stopped suddenly. It has since been reinstated, I received help from a food bank when I was stony broke. I had exhausted help from families and sold any assets I had ( few ) . I don't know what I would have done without help. Turned to crime possibly. I do not own any of the latest gadgets, never wanted them, just to survive is a struggle.

[ubasses]

Yes, entitlement to the food is checked, people have to be referred from the likes of GP, Health Visitor, social services before they can receive anything.

It is sad and I always make sure I put some things in the box at our local Sainsbury when I do my shop.

[Old_Geezer]

My moving or not to China isn't going to change a thing about how many food banks spring up. Or how morally correct wealthy countries act.

[ToraToraTora]

"through no fault of my own" - err job = earn money = food = not starve! We must be the only form of wildlife that exits the womb thinking the world owes us a living! No wonder we are up a certain creek without a certain instrument

[Old_Geezer]

And probably the only one that understands the concept of morality and the consequential rights & obligations that brings.

[Kiki-frog]

That's a bit harsh, Tora. Sure there are benefit scroungers, but I suspect few people would use a food bank if they had the choice not to

[jomifl]

I would rather one deserving person got help even if a dozen scroungers took advantage of the help.

[mikey4444]

I have been donating to my local Food Bank for 9 months now. It is part of the Trussell Trust. The people who administer it say that they can hardly cope with the demand and that it is much worse than last summer when I started to donate. You don't have to donate much food to help people like the Trussell Trust. I usually spend about £4 a week.

But it seems terrible that we here in Britain, an essentially wealthy, non-third world nation are finding food banks in existence at all, let alone on the increase. We can't just blame the present government, as it was on the increase under the last one as well.

[flump1]

Tora tora tora I would dearly like you to spend 24 hours in my body ....stoopid man.

[youngmafbog]

Ah flump, the art of the lefty, restort to name calling.

So what I want to know is how this happens. There is welfare and it does not cost the earth to feed ones self. Are these people claiming everything they can or wasting what they are given (I mean by that no using it to the best or obtaining ultra interest loans that suck up future benefit). Perhaps some education in money management would help?

I would like to understand exactly why this is happening and perhaps treat teh cause and not the symptom. And that does not mean handing out more cash.

Perhaps benefits should be paid in food parcels?

And how many turn up sporting a mobile phone?

[sherrardk]

When we lost envy thing five years ago we didn't receive any benefits for about 12 weeks, I would have used a food bank if I had know about them. Sure, there are probably people who abuse the situation but for those people in genuine need their situations are horrible, depressing and bleak.

[youngmafbog]

"Twice as many as Debenhams" the headline screams. I did wonder why they chose that store and not Tesc/Aldi/ASDA etc.

Well:

As of January 2013, the company owns and operates 154 stores in the United Kingdom and 11 in Ireland.

Out of all the towns in the country 300+ is not actually that many is it? Tesco on the other hand to give perspectivce has over 3,000.

So still a problem but maybe not as huge as the headline is trying to make out.

[youngmafbog]

ok we are starting to get ther, so the problem may be that benefits are not dealt with quickly enough.

That is not quite "Such a terrible admission and the chancellor and government are saying the welfare changes will help people to be better off,and many are working families not unemployed" is it.

So we should lobby our MP's to get this sorted. There should be no reason to delay payment apart from the usual incompetence of Civil Service departments.

[albaqwerty]

youngbafmog, walk a mile in another mans shoes before you start saying that they waste their benefit.

£56 for example, could go on £15 of gas, (cooking and a bit of heating), £10 electric, £21 for food.
the price of gas and electric are terribly high, food prices are increasing,

If you are in a very well paid job, none of the increases will affect you.