AS the UK poverty crisis has escalated, the charitable food aid sector has been pushed past breaking point. The Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN), which represents hundreds of food aid providers outside of the Trussell Trust network, says the new Government now has the opportunity to reverse the tide of poverty that has swept across the country over the last fourteen years.
In a letter to Keir Starmer, IFAN’s membership calls for immediate actions to reduce food insecurity and poverty through a ‘cash first’, income-focused approach. They say millions of people across the UK cannot wait any longer.
The letter in full:
Dear Prime Minister
No one should have to turn to charity to be able to eat. Yet, over more than a decade, increasing numbers of people have been pushed to the doors of independent food banks and other food aid providers because they haven’t got enough money to afford food.
As the UK poverty crisis has escalated, the charitable food aid sector has been pushed past breaking point. Recent data from the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) has consistently found that food bank teams are being overstretched and overwhelmed by rising demand.
Food banks and other food aid services are being asked to do the impossible as they do their utmost to support growing numbers of people unable to afford food. These include both people in work whose wages are not enough to cover the cost of living as well as people who are already receiving all their social security entitlements but are still not able to make ends meet.
In the past decade, the provision of charitable food aid in the UK has proved to be an ineffective and unsustainable response to deepening destitution and poverty. Food banks and other food aid groups can only ever provide a temporary sticking plaster to the problem of hunger. What’s more, according to data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), most households reporting severe food insecurity do not access a food bank.
IFAN advocates for a ‘cash first’ (income-focused) approach to food insecurity and campaigns to see a country without the need for charitable food aid. Not only do cash first interventions provide more dignity and choice to people facing financial hardship but they are effective at reducing food insecurity. DWP data tells us that the temporary £20 uplift to Universal Credit reduced moderate to severe food insecurity in households on Universal Credit by 16 per cent.
Your new government now has a once in a generation opportunity to reverse the tide of poverty that has swept the country over the past fourteen years. Its impact has been felt across generations as people’s physical and mental health have been thwarted. We urge you to take much needed actions as swiftly as possible.
IFAN is calling for immediate actions to reduce food insecurity through a cash first or income-focused approach including:
- Adopting an Essentials Guarantee as a first step towards ensuring a Living Income for all.
- The removal of the two-child limit as well as the benefit cap.
- Abolishing sanctions.
- Ending the five-week wait for Universal Credit alongside removing benefit deductions.
- Removing No Recourse to Public Funds status.
- The permanent provision of funding for local crisis support schemes to enable every UK local authority to distribute help via cash payments.
- Ensuring employers pay a real Living Wage and provide job security.
- Investment in local advice services.
These are actions which both in the short and long term will reduce and have the potential to eliminate severe food insecurity. For millions of people across the UK, not a minute longer can be wasted.
* See the list of signatories here.
* Source: Independent Food Aid Network