Responding to today’s Feeding Britain report, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) Alison Garnham said: “The DWP is quick to attribute blame for poverty to those in hardship themselves but many of the problems are closer to home. So far its response has been dilatory...
We know that up to two-thirds of the people turning to the foodbank for help are having problems with the benefits system. That’s why since August 2013, a CPAG adviser funded by the Pears Foundation has been working in a foodbank centre in Tower Hamlets, helping people resolve the benefit problems which have brought them there, and gathering evidence about how and why people use foodbanks.
Newly re-elected, David Cameron has appointed his cabinet to lead the 2015 government. But what will he, and his ministers, do to turn back a rising tide of child poverty? In addition to the Prime Minister himself, George Osborne and Iain Duncan-Smith will be back in their pre-election roles of Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
In response to the Work & Pensions Committee report on benefit sanctions, Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group said: “This powerful report should be read by everyone who wants to sort out the benefit system’s administrative problems or cut food bank queues...
In response to the Work & Pensions Committee report on benefit sanctions, Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group said: “This powerful report should be read by everyone who wants to sort out the benefit system’s administrative problems or cut food bank queues...
"What is driving food bank use in the UK? Answering this research question is something of a challenge. There is no official data on food bank use – although the Trussell Trust does collect data on the numbers using their network, alongside reasons for referral – and no systematic evidence base telling us why people are referred for support.
Visiting a food bank should be a last resort: yet new research from CPAG, Oxfam, the Trussell Trust and the Church of England finds that failures in the safety net itself are forcing people to turn to food banks.
Gaps in the social security safety net are a key reason why people are turning to food banks, according to the first in-depth study into the personal experiences of recipients of emergency food aid in the UK.
