April 23, 2013

More hard-up Britons turn to food banks

Source: Financial Times

The number of people in Britain receiving emergency food rations has more than doubled in the past year, data showed on Wednesday, as inflation eroded incomes and government spending cuts pushed hundreds of thousands into crisis.

The Trussell Trust, which runs the largest network of food banks in the UK, saw referrals to its centres jump to almost 350,000 in the year to April 2013, up from 130,000 the previous year. The charity estimates that about half of the households it helped had at least one person in work, and a third had children.

The 170 per cent surge in demand for food handouts will fuel debate over the impact of government austerity on poorer households, amid concerns about the effect on demand as consumers cut back on everyday spending.

Trussell Trust food banks do not accept walk-in requests for help. They only provide food to people who have been officially referred by a recognised frontline agency, such as a GP, jobcentre, social worker or the police. For policy makers, the high proportion of emergency food going to working households illustrates the wider trend in the post-recession job market, where many new jobs are part time, temporary and low paid – meaning even those in work sometimes struggle to put food on the table.


Read more: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/aa02aeee-ab53-11e2-ac71-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2RKb7uOgK

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Where have the consciouses and brains of all of the law-makers in all of these countries gone? This is a predicted and predictable pattern every single time, yet it's being steamrolled through in most countries, including ours. Globalization in the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries means mega-corporations and the 1% oligarchy have taken hold internationally and own not just our government, but those of Britain and most other countries! We need a worldwide 99% coordinated strike!