Report warns that as social security safety nets become weaker, charity provision could replace state-funded schemes{jcomments on}
The government's welfare reforms, including benefit sanctions and the bedroom tax, are a central factor in the explosion in the numbers of impoverished people turning to charity food banks, an academic study has said.
The study, part of a three-year investigation into emergency food provision, was carried out by Hannah Lambie-Mumford, a Sheffield University researcher who co-authored a recently published government report into the extent of food aid in the UK.
That report in February concluded there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate a clear causal link between welfare reform and food bank demand in the UK.
But Lambie-Mumford's new study, to be published on April 9, says the rise in demand for charity food is a clear signal "of the inadequacy of both social security provision and the processes by which it is delivered".
The report warns that as social security safety nets become weaker, there is a danger that charity food could become an integral part of the state welfare provision, or even a replacement for formerly state-funded emergency welfare schemes.
Her paper will be presented to an all-party committee of MPs which meets on 9 April to finalise the terms of an inquiry into hunger and food poverty.
The inquiry will examine the rise of food banks, an issue that has become politically charged as ministers attempt to deflect criticism that austerity policies, including welfare cuts, have had the effect of compelling more people on low incomes to rely on food aid.
Read the full article in the Guardian
