UK butcher helps poor strained by new welfare policy
A local butcher in West Yorkshire, in northern England, has offered the poor in the area some food and other basic stuff needed for Christmas as a lack of government support continues to push many into despair.
David Jones, who runs a butcher's shop in Dewsbury, said Sunday that he will offer at least a Christmas dinner to the homeless who have reportedly failed to receive any government support in the run-up to the holiday.
“I can't help with much but I can put a xmas dinner on you're table,” said Jones in a tweet as he called on anyone having problems with the government’s new social care policy, known as the Universal Credit, to come forward and receive the help.
Hundreds of thousands of people sleep rough in Britain, the world’s fifth largest economy.
The United Nations said in a recent report that government austerity measures, which began eight years ago, had effectively left a fifth of UK population, around 14 million people, in poverty.
The number of people relying on food banks and other charity organizations for their living has increased in the UK although the government denies its social care policy has made people poorer.
The situation became even more complicated last month after the government announced the official launch of the Universal Credit, a system in which a series of old benefits are replaced with a lump sum payment each month.
Many have experienced problems with registration in the program and government agents have told them they could receive no money until after Christmas. There have also been reports that agents have been encouraged to get benefit claimants off the phone when they call to have their names registered.
Jones, the local butcher in Dewsbury, said it was the government’s fault that people in the UK were facing such hardships in their lives. He said that the number of homeless in his town had increased as a result of austerity programs and recurrent government cuts to welfare budgets.
“With Universal Credit coming in on a larger scale, we are going to see more of this,” he said.
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