New research from Trussell highlights widespread reliance on food banks for everyday essentials.
The First Minister has been on the road listening to people’s priorities for Wales this summer. No doubt she has heard concerns about the cost of living, housing, the NHS, childcare, and people’s ability to afford the essentials.
However, a less spoken about reality for many in Wales is the experience of needing to access a food bank.
Every day, hundreds of food parcels are provided to households in communities across Wales, with food banks in the Trussell community distributing 187,458 emergency food parcels last year to people who don’t have enough money to afford the essentials. That’s the highest figure in our charity’s history and represents a 64% increase from five years ago.
Incomes have failed to keep pace with the soaring cost of living in Wales, leading to more people than ever turning to food banks. Even prior to the cost-of-living crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of emergency food parcels needed was rising in Wales. This is a long-term trend driven by a weakened social security system that is unable to protect people from the most severe forms of hardship.
Incomes have failed to keep pace with the soaring cost of living in Wales, leading to more people than ever turning to food banks.
New research from Trussell shows that across Wales, people in receipt of Universal Credit do not have enough money to afford the essentials. People are unable to afford food, heat their homes, attend medical appointments, as well as falling into debt because of household bills and credit commitments.
Half of people (51%) claiming Universal Credit in Wales ran out of food in the last month and did not have enough money to get more. We estimate that 70,000 people in receipt of Universal Credit in Wales have been forced to use a food bank in the last 12 months.
Work is not providing a reliable route out of hardship, as 53% of working households in Wales in receipt of Universal Credit have gone without essentials – such as heating and toiletries – in the last six months. A quarter of people receiving Universal Credit in Wales (24%) said their financial situation was impacting on their ability to find or go to work. This is likely down to being unable to afford fuel or public transport costs.
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Seven in ten (70%) people receiving Universal Credit in Wales are having to borrow money or use credit to tide them over. It’s shocking that 60,000 people (16%) who claim Universal Credit in Wales are estimated to have been at risk of homelessness in the last 12 months.
Food banks are not the solution to hunger and hardship.
We want to see a Wales without the need for food banks, where everyone has enough money to afford the essentials. All our evidence points to the design and delivery of our social security system as the most immediate driver of food bank need, with other important factors including low-paid, insecure work and high-cost, insecure housing.
With action from governments in Westminster and Cardiff Bay, we know change is possible.
In Wales, we want to see the new First Minister tackle these issues head on, through a plan to reduce the need for food banks – similar to the one recently published in Scotland. This would unlock the most effective policy solutions to reduce the number of people trapped in the deepest forms of poverty in Wales. The plan should encompass actions to ensure people have enough income to afford the essentials, from work and social security, combined with affordable and adequate housing, access to support with health needs and caring responsibilities, and financial support and advice for when a crisis or shock event hits a household.
In the immediate term, we welcome efforts from the Welsh Government to make it easier for people to apply for Welsh benefits – starting with free school meals, school essentials grants and the council tax reduction scheme. Being able to make just one application rather than multiple forms with separate criteria will help simplify the support from Welsh Government for many. This work needs to be the beginning of a wider programme to help ensure people in Wales have enough income to afford the essentials.
We are calling on Welsh Government to support our calls for the UK Government to act by introducing a protected minimum floor in Universal Credit.
The UK Government has an opportunity to improve Universal Credit in the forthcoming autumn Budget. When a person applies for Universal Credit, they can face a five-week wait for their claim to be processed. This wait can be devastating, and many people have to take out an ‘advance’ from the UK Government to cover the five-week wait, which must then be paid back from future Universal Credit payments. According to our latest research, almost a third (32%) of people receiving Universal Credit in Wales who are subject to deductions from their Universal Credit payments are having to repay an advance payment, taken to cover the five-week wait. These deductions from already inadequate rates of social security are pushing people into even deeper hardship.
We are calling on Welsh Government to support our calls for the UK Government to act by introducing a protected minimum floor in Universal Credit. This would work by limiting the amount of reductions that could be applied to a household’s Universal Credit from debt deductions and the benefit cap. It would ensure that the amount of standard allowance could not fall below this protected minimum, helping to embed the principle that the system should always ensure people have enough to afford the essentials.
It’s positive to see early engagement between the First Minister and the Prime Minister, given the action needed by both governments to put in place the building blocks for a future without the need for food banks. During a time of tough economic choices, we hope the First Minister will use the opportunity of Labour in power across the UK and in Wales to impress upon the Prime Minister the need to act.
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Whilst the people Eluned Morgan has met over the summer may not have directly spoken about needing to turn to a food bank – particularly due to the shame and stigma still associated with this – we know this experience is far too common in Wales. The First Minister now has the opportunity to take a stand, and we urge her government to back calls for action from Westminster, as well as make every possible effort to turn the tide on the rising need for food banks in Wales.
Trussell is a UK charity, with a community of 147 food bank centres across Wales. Find out more about Trussell ’s work in Wales, and about our policy priorities at trussell.org.uk.
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