Trussell Trust policy manager Beatrice Orchard and research officer Arianne Clarke set out what the next government can do to end the need for food banks.
A general election campaign always brings with it a tussle of ideas about the future of the country. Tackling soaring hunger and hardship across the UK and building a future where no one needs a food bank should be at the heart of this debate.
More than 3.1m emergency food parcels were distributed by food banks in the Trussell Trust network during 2023-24, with more than 1.1m of these parcels going to children. This is a record high and nearly double the number compared to five years ago.
People are forced to turn to food banks because their incomes are too low to afford the essentials. This is driven primarily by the design and delivery of our social security system. Even before the cost of living crisis, inadequate rates of social security meant significant numbers of people were going without heating, food and other essentials.
Incomes from social security are reduced further due to deductions often taken to repay debt to the Department for Work and Pensions, arising from the five week wait for Universal Credit, and other caps, limits and sanctions in the social security system.
At the same time, insecure and low-paid work isn’t sufficiently protecting people from needing to turn to a food bank, and insecure homes with unaffordable rents leave too many people facing homelessness and going without food and other essentials as they try to cover their housing costs.
These levels of hardship have a huge impact on local government. Local authorities are facing increased need for services such as homelessness support and social care, at the same time as increased costs and huge funding shortfalls. As a result, local support systems are increasingly threadbare and overstretched. Nearly one in five council leaders in England expect their local authority to be facing effective bankruptcy in the next year. Budgetary pressures are also being felt across local authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In recent years, the Household Support Fund (HSF) has given local authorities in England some much needed capacity to maintain support to low-income households. Support has ranged from targeted cost of living payments to low-income households to the provision of goods and cash grants via local welfare assistance schemes, and from food vouchers during school holidays to funding for advice services to help prevent a short-term crisis from spiralling into a prolonged period of hardship.
However, with the current round of HSF funding due to end in September, and no commitment beyond this point, we are deeply concerned about what this will mean for local support. A long-term solution which recognises and supports the role of local authorities in protecting people from going without essentials is desperately needed.
We know discretionary crisis support that prioritises cash grants over the provision of food or other goods can help people living on very low incomes to manage unexpected costs. When this local crisis support is joined up with sufficiently funded and targeted advice services, it can really start to address the root causes of financial hardship.
This will require a long-term strategy and funding to build a more effective, dignified and integrated system of local crisis support and preventative advice services. Food banks are already close to breaking point and without urgent action, people on the lowest incomes risk being pushed deeper into poverty, local charities risk struggling to operate effectively and existing local support systems will collapse.
Alongside action to build effective local support systems, the next government must ensure our social security system is fit for purpose and protects people from going without the essentials.
That’s why, alongside the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, we are calling for an Essentials Guarantee in Universal Credit to embed in legislation the principle that, at a minimum, Universal Credit should protect people from going without essentials. This should start with a minimum floor that limits the amount that can be clawed back from social security payments to repay debt to make sure these deductions aren’t pushing people into destitution.
The next UK government should also scrap the two-child limit to help protect all members of a family from going without essentials.
There are other things we need from the next government, including new workers’ rights legislation and building 90,000 new social homes every year in England.
We know it’s possible to turn the tide of hardship facing our communities. This is an issue the public is deeply concerned about. We all need the next government to meet its responsibilities – something that will also allow local authorities to play their part and help us to build a future where food banks can close their doors for good.
To find out more about what local government stakeholders want from the next government, check out the rest of our NextGov series.
