Well here we are most of the way through 2013 and it’s looking to triple again.
Trussell are reporting that almost 360,000 people have used its food banks since April.
That is 355,985 over 28 weeks or 13,697 people a week. Over the year that will be 771,969.
However given that the total so far covers spring and summer and we have winter yet to come
that number will, in my opinion pass 850,000. Trussell are estimated to be approximately two thirds
of the total providers of food banks though they could be half the total when you count the many
small local groups that do not make the national lists.
This means that the total numbers could be somewhere between 1,200,000 at best and as many as
1,500,000 or more at worst.
David Cameron’s own poverty tsar Frank Field, a welfare minister under Labour is said to be
shocked by the steep increase in their use: “Something very serious is happening to people at
the bottom of society.”
The British Red Cross is to issue Food Aid Parcels this winter for the first time since the Second
World War.
But it gets worse. Thousands of people are noted by Trussell as returning items from food parcels that
need to be cooked or asking for parcels that contain pre cooked food only as they cannot afford
electricity or gas to cook them.
Electricity companies across the country are putting up charges, so called “Green Taxes”are steadily
increasing adding yet more to the household Gas and Electricity bills.
A No10 spokesman said: “Food bank use went up 10 times under Labour.
Which is true, they did. in 2005/6 there were less than 3,000 people listed as having used a Food
Bank. In 2009/10 that number was 40,000, a thirteen fold increase. Since the Coalition took power
though the number has gone from 40,000 to upwards of One Million people. By the end of 2013
Twenty Five times as many people may be going cap in hand to food banks for charity to feed their
families.
At the worst point under Labour 40,000 people in food poverty.
Currently under the caring Tories and Lib Dems we are well on the way to a Million people going hungry.
A government spokesman said “The benefits system supports millions of people who are on low
incomes or unemployed and there is no robust evidence that welfare reforms are linked to
increased use of food banks.
Ah so when More than 65,000 people were referred to food banks between April and September of this
year because of benefit changes – a four-fold increase – and another 117,000 people were referred because
of delays in paying their benefits that is nothing to do with the welfare reforms that came in earlier in the
year.
Former Tory minister Edwina Currie tweeted she had "no sympathy" for food bank users who were
"opportunists".
Lord Freud, the work and pensions minister, said the demand for food banks was only so great
because the "free food" was there in the first place
Education secretary, Michael Gove, says feckless parenting and household financial
mismanagement is to blame for people needing food charity.
In the 21stcentury here in Britain, the seventh richest nation in the world, upwards of one percent of our entire population is dependent on charity to put food on their tables.
We call ourselves civilized and yet our Government not only stands by and does nothing when the poorest and
weakest in our society are going hungry but they actively put into place new schemes and measures to make the situation worse; then They Blame The Poor and Hungry for Being in that Situation in the First Place.
Perhaps someone should mention to “Call me Dave” that a million potential voters are going hungry as a result
of “His” policies and Government.
“Nick Clegg’s”chances of re-election should be vanishingly small right now, he is just as guilty, his Lib Dems are
part of the government and are standing back and doing nothing or even worse are actively supporting the
policies that are driving men, women and children into Dickensian levels of poverty and starvation.
Come back Little Orphan Annie and Oliver Twist, you will feel right at home in the 21stcentury Britain.