More employed people turning to Cirencester Foodbank for help
A new report by Trussell has found 14.1 million people in the UK faced hunger due to a lack of money in 2024
Cirencester Foodbank says more people are accessing its service for help as cost of living continues put pressure on people's finances.
It comes as Trussell releases it's latest report into hardship in the UK, revealing 14.1 million faced hunger in 2024 due to financial strain - a 2.5 million rise from the previous research in 2022.
The report also uncovers that three in 10 people referred to a foodbank are employed, raising concerns that having a job isn't enough to allow people to get by.
The charity is calling for Government action, in the form of scrapping the two-child benefit limit as well as ensuring people in privately rented accommodation are given adequate support to help them survive by uprating Local Housing Allowance in line with current rent levels.
Another finding of the report was that 1 in 4 children are growing up in food insecure households.
Anton Wynn, the head of Cirencester Foodbank, says more needs to be done to support low income families after the foodbank conducted their own report for the Cotswold area: “For us in the Cotswolds we see a higher proportion of families needing to use foodbanks.
“We found that actually we had a higher number of families and children needing to use the foodbank than is the national average.”
He added that the stats next year will show whether the government are doing enough to bring about change.
“I think it will really be a litmus test for a lot of the policies that are coming out now to see what happens within the next 12 months to those figures and whether we continue to see a rise.”
A DWP spokesperson said:
“This Government is determined to tackle the unacceptable rise in food bank dependence.
“In addition to extending free school meals and ensuring the poorest children don’t go hungry in the holidays with £1billion to reform crisis support, our Child Poverty Taskforce will publish an ambitious strategy later this year.
“We are also overhauling jobcentres and reforming the broken welfare system to support people into good, secure jobs, while always protecting those who need it most.”