Welfare cuts, benefit sanctions causing hunger, food insecurity – Oxford study

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Welfare cuts, benefit sanctions causing hunger, food insecurity – Oxford study

Harsh austerity measures including slashed welfare payments and dwindling public services have caused the rapid spread of food banks across Britain, new academic research suggests.

The research,“Austerity, sanctions, and the rise of food banks in the UK,” was published on Wednesday in the British Medical Journal. It was conducted by a team of academics from Oxford University.

The study’s authors analyzed data from the Trussell Trust, a leading NGO that coordinates food banks across the UK. They noted that increasing numbers of doctors in Britain are witnessing their patients turn to food banks to survive, and concluded that the UK government’s argument that this trend is the result of supply rather than demand is false.

The government has long refused to admit to a link between its austerity policies and a dramatic explosion in food banks across the state. However, the Oxford University report shows otherwise.

The study highlighted a concrete link between demand for food parcels and the government’s austerity measures. It found demand for emergency food aid is highest in areas where poverty occurs in tandem with reductions in social welfare payments. It also revealed that emergency food assistance is particularly common in regions where high levels of unemployment exist.

When the coalition government came to power in 2010, the Trussell Trust food banks were active in 29 local council areas throughout Britain. By 2013/14, however, this number had risen to 251. Over the same period, the Trussell Trust’s rate of emergency food aid distribution had tripled, the Oxford University study said.

While soup kitchens have long been present in the UK, the rapid spread of food banks is a recent phenomenon. This new trend has been sharply criticized by the UK’s Faculty of Public Health, which warned Prime Minister David Cameron in 2014 that Britain’s welfare system was “increasingly failing to provide a robust last line of defense against hunger.”

The Oxford University research, published Wednesday, uncovered stark fluctuations between different regions. While less than 0.1 percent of people based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, required emergency food parcels, this figure soared to 8 percent in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Some of these variations stemmed from the length of time a particular food bank had been established, the research found. Nevertheless, the report said higher levels of emergency food distribution were “significantly associated” with austerity policies and welfare cuts….More Here

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Welfare cuts, benefit sanctions causing hunger, food insecurity – Oxford study