Displaying items by tag: Trussell Trust

The Trussell Trust needs people to raid cupboards for unwanted food to donate in the weeks before Christmas. Parcel costs have rocketed. Some food banks have seen the cost of a food parcel rise from £39 to £58. Many face a difficult winter with rising costs of heating and food. Food banks - many operating through churches - are expecting more demand than ever before, with volunteers giving out 1.3 million emergency food parcels over the next six months. The cost of providing vital food parcels to families in need has risen significantly as the cost-of-living crisis worsens. National Statistics data shows that the price of vital items usually included in the parcels has risen by 17% in a year. Lack of understanding contributes to food going to waste, or donations not being given. Trussell Trust have joined with Deliveroo takeaway service to ensure more donations get to the centres this Christmas.

Last year increased generosity from the public to food banks kept pace with the increased need for emergency food for people locked into poverty through benefit delays. Universal Credit is not the only payment with which people experience problems but key issues forcing people to food banks is the five week wait for a first Universal Credit payment. The charity said, ‘It is now time for our new Chancellor to do his part in the forthcoming Budget and match these acts of compassion by doing the right thing and putting money back into the pockets of people who most need support. It is in our power as a country to end the need for food banks. To reach that future, we need to make sure everyone has enough money for the essentials. The government’s first priority must be ensuring that our benefits system anchors us all from the rising tide of poverty by ending the five week wait for Universal Credit.’

The Trussell Trust has said that Philip Hammond has missed a chance to do the right thing by giving people on the lowest income financial support and certainty before Brexit. Our benefits system should ensure proper support is in place when help is most needed. But more people are struggling to make ends meet and face hunger. The trust said a record demand in foodbank use has resulted from benefits not covering the cost of essentials. ‘By failing to end the benefits freeze and the five-week wait for Universal Credit, thousands more people will become trapped in poverty and may be forced to a foodbank as a result.’ Financial experts said that Britain needs urgent spending reviews to address issues around benefits squeezes, education funding, and social care. The Chancellor promised to free up more money to help end austerity if there’s a smooth Brexit, and that a disorderly Brexit would deal a ‘significant’ blow to economic activity in the short term. See

The next stage of Universal Credit rollout will be scaled back, amid concerns it has made an estimated 3.2 million households worse off. It has also run over budget, is years behind schedule, and is said to have forced claimants into destitution and in some cases even prostitution. Others say they have been left to rely on foodbanks. The Trussell Trust, which runs national foodbanks, said it welcomed the news but added, ‘It will come too late for the thousands making new UC claims over the coming year. As an urgent priority, the 5+ week wait for a first payment must end’. When she started as work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, said she would listen ‘very carefully’ to concerns. She admitted the system could be better, and promised to ‘learn from errors’ and adjust the system where needed. See also

The Trussell Trust runs a network of over 400 foodbanks across the UK, giving emergency food and support to people in crisis. Already this year they have given 586,907 three-day emergency food supplies to people in financial emergencies. Thousands of vulnerable people are finding that they cannot manage their budget when an unexpected extra expense occurs. They are barely surviving. On 7 March Trussell Trust’s Welsh branches called on Christians with knowledge of the welfare system to volunteer to help people, following a new Joseph Rowntree report revealing that a quarter of Welsh people are in poverty. Although overall poverty in Wales has gone down, specific groups, such as pensioners and single parents, have not seen any improvement.