The media has been reporting moves to put job centre staff and financial advisers into food banks. One hospital in England has even started a food bank. Calls continue to change welfare policy to stem increasing poverty of those who are unemployed, ill and disabled or in low income jobs.
Find your local foodbank: Netmums Trussell Trust
‘Food bank jobcentres’: will DWP make charity handouts part of welfare state? –
Iain Duncan Smith’s move to put jobcentre staff in food banks suggests a shift in outlook – and is tacit admission of link between welfare policy and food poverty. Work and pensions secretary’s announcement comes as new report says focus of policy should be on phasing food banks out by 2020, not expanding their roles. [Guardian 28 October 2015]
Food banks to offer money and debt advice – Thousand of people attending food banks in the UK will be offered access to free advice on money and debts. The Trussell Trust said 30 of its 420 food banks would offer the service across the UK from 2016.
Clients will get an on-the-spot financial assessment, and then be referred to groups such as Citizens Advice, or the debt charity StepChange. The service is being funded by a donation of £500,000 from Martin Lewis, the founder of MoneySavingExpert. [BBC news 30 October 2015]
Food banks to offer financial guidance
Food banks will roll out a money and debt guidance service to consumers funded by a donation from MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis. [professionaladviser.com 2 November 2015]
Placing DWP staff in foodbanks – … The rise of the foodbank has perhaps been the most visible sign of the erosion of the welfare state, and the failure of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to support vulnerable people. The government talks about providing security for families, whilst growing numbers of people do not even have the security of adequate food.
The fact is that the only possible way for some people to have an income high enough to be able to buy adequate food is if the DWP changes policy. As it stands, with the plan to cut £30 per week from the income of people the DWP itself has deemed unfit to work, the situation can only deteriorate… [Ekklesia, 31 October 2015]
Hospital food banks expose the gap between benefits and the cost of survival – The report that Tameside hospital is setting up a permanent on-site food bank in A&E, with food parcels for needy patients who are going home, is shocking – but sensible. What’s the point of spending a fortune on operations and drugs for people whose primary condition is poverty and malnutrition? [Guardian 29 Oct 2015]
