Britons driven to food banks by poverty seen as 'collateral damage' by DWP, says Trussell Trust

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Exclusive: Britain's biggest food bank provider says the Government has threated the charity for speaking out on the issue



Hundreds of thousands of Britons driven to food banks by poverty in the past year are seen as “collateral damage” by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), according to Chris Mould, chair of the Trussell Trust. 
The Government has spent years in denial of the existence of food poverty and continues to threaten the charity for speaking out on the issue, he said.

The Trussell Trust is Britain’s biggest provider of food banks, with more than 420 around the country. But despite years of repeated attempts by the charity, Iain Duncan-Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who has accused the organisation of scaremongering, has never met its representatives, said Mr Mould.

Food bank volunteers face growing battle as benefits crisis bites

“We’ve asked on many occasions over many years and we’ve always suggested that we’d like to have a conversation with his department about the issues that we see.”

He added: “The only time we’ve had access to the Department for Work and Pensions at any sensible process of dialogue was during the early part of the Coalition government in 2010-2011 when they were consulting on issues relating to the social fund and welfare reform.”

Lives are at stake, said Mr Mould, who ran the Central Police Training and Development Authority and NHS trusts in Wiltshire and Bedfordshire before becoming involved with the charity more than a decade ago.

“We are dealing with people who have been going hungry but, more importantly, have come to a point where they see no point in continuing to live. What makes me angry is that I’ve met too many people who have been driven to that place by inadequate implementation of existing public service and policy.”





He added: “There are many people who have told me that the food bank saved their lives and several instances of people where that’s absolutely true; they had reached the end of their tether and they were planning to commit suicide.”

Food-bank use in Britain is at record levels. More than one million food parcels, each providing enough food for three days, were given out between 2014 and 2015, more than 400,000 of which went to children. In recognition of the growing problem, the Big Lottery Fund gave the Trussell Trust £748,423 last month. In more than 40 per cent of cases, the main reason for people needing food parcels is related to delays or changes to their benefits, says the charity. Although official figures are not yet available, food banks were busier than usual over Christmas.

Commenting on the DWP’s refusal to have a meaningful dialogue with the charity and its stance on the plight of Britons who cannot afford to eat, Mr Mould said: “I would imagine they see it as collateral damage as they implement new policy and they don’t intend to divert or adjust their policy, so it’s better not to hear. That’s how it feels.”

Attempts by officials to undermine the charity continue but are more subtle than tactics used in the past, he said. Last year The Independent revealed how a senior aide to Iain Duncan-Smith had warned Mr Mould that the “Government might try to shut you down”, because of the charity’s campaigning on food poverty. Asked if such threats persisted, Mr Mould said: “What’s happened is that the messages are passed through in a more subtle way, that’s all I can really say. What we hear is that we will never get access to policy makers in Government.” He added: “We get told that if we were to say less, and to be less regular in the saying of what we say, we would then get the chance to have conversations with Government departments.”


Food poverty in Britain is set to worsen in the coming years, he fears. “We have to face the reality that what we are seeing now is just the beginning,” he told the IoS. “The measure must be that when things go wrong, we fast-track putting them right. But we have a Government department that tolerates without shame situations where people have no access to financial support for months on end at times.

“If you were to take the same principle and apply it to the health service and say, ‘A tiny proportion of patients won’t get a good service’, and as a consequence they don’t get better and die, there would be a scandal. Because you would never be allowed to consider that that’s how you would operate a public service.”

More at  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britons-driven-to-food-banks-by-poverty-seen-as-collateral-damage-by-dwp-says-trussell-trust-a6794101.html

Fuzzy Zack wrote:You do know there's a difference between work ethic and being economically productive?

Like I said, factors of production have moved to China and India but they are not innovating yet. Innovations that are exportable add real value to the economy.

And FYI - you have to work with companies in India if you want to do business there. Even large companies like Coca Cola have partnered up with Indian companies.

Indians do have a strong work ethic but not that good at innovation. The only people keeping India down are Indians.

it is a few Indians at fault but it is more they have sold out that allows the west to keep them down more than it has been able to China and east Asia.
In China the government Owns half of any company operating in china.
I agree on the innovation out of India, between China and India i back China hands down it has had much better governance over the past 2 decades.

And there is a difference in the short term but over the longer term the money will go to the better value which is where there is work ethic and infrastructure... and progress means more and more of the world is getting the infrastructure so the work ethic of a nation is becoming a more deciding factor.

Globalization and the progress of 3rd world nations means greater competition for jobs as they catch up.

And That is why Singapore export innovation and expertise as it could see a niche that will be harder for a bigger and less agile economy to fill. Plus like Australia it benefits from being ahead of the other nations in the region in terms of social, economical and political development due to the being part of the commonwealth. Which gave both of us the opportunity to seize a big share of Asian market early in its rise.

veya_victaous wrote:

Syl wrote:

It has balanced out in some trades... like you say people get what they pay for.

On the other hand when unqualified staff are needed, and companies like Butlins and Costa advertise abroad for workers instead of employing local people, which has happened fairly recently....how can that be right?

it's what is.. it is globalization and the world is past the point of going back.

But is it really fair to employ someone that costs more and works less just because they were born on a particular piece of dirt?

Now the Uk has a double situation with the EU, but long term that will allow Europe to compete with the USA and China, so it is short term pain for long term gain from an overall Europe perspective.

so there is problems, that is life, but what do you do? do you cry and say "try and make it was like it was before"(which doesn't really work) or do you try and solve them by doing things like increasing the education standards in the UK so that even if you are importing labor you are exporting expertise. A more UK specific option would be to try and modernize and revitalize some of your old port/industrial cities focus on specific components in manufacturing or technology and try and own that market like Thailand does Magnetic HDD and Korea does RAM and CPUs.

A lot of the jobs are minimum wage.....so advertising and employing jobs abroad rather than locally wont save the employer any money.

Firms make extra money by getting cash bonuses from EU for employing Europeans over UK people...


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2379477/Brussels-offers-UK-firms-1-000-cash-bribes-hire-foreign-workers.html

Tommy Monk wrote:Firms make extra money by getting cash bonuses from EU for employing Europeans over UK people...


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2379477/Brussels-offers-UK-firms-1-000-cash-bribes-hire-foreign-workers.html

That needs to be illegal. It's bribery and corruption.