UK food bank network hands out record 1.6 million food parcels
A record number of emergency food parcels were given out by a British food bank network last year, as benefit cuts, universal credit delays, and rising poverty fuelled the busiest year in the charity’s history.
The Trussell Trust said on Thursday that its network of food banks across the UK had handed out a record number of 1.6 million emergency food parcels in 2018.
The trust said nearly a third of those who received the food, more than 500,000, were children, confirming reports that more minors across Britain were in urgent need of food amid cuts to benefits or delays in the implementation of a new government program providing social care.
The charity said the overall number of food bags given out to the poor across the UK last year showed a year-on-year 19 percent increase, the biggest surge in five years.
It also said supplies were not sufficient to cope with the increasing number of people demanding emergency food, adding that its food banks had expanded their inventory by 73 percent in the last five years.
“We do not want to be a part of the welfare state, we can’t be a part of the system,” said Emma Revie, the Trussell Trust’s chief executive, while criticizing the government for its lack of action on increased poverty in the UK.
The new data comes amid increasing outrage in Britain about the roll-out of a signature government welfare system, called the Universal Credit, which critics say has fueled poverty and caused many to become homeless and rely on charity services to survive.
The government insists the program is meant to reduce the number of benefit claimants and force able-bodied people to go to work.
The United Nations has confirmed that the Universal Credit has fueled poverty in Britain, leaving at least a fifth of the population, around 14 million people, struggling for their lives.
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