Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that if there were food banks ten years ago, they would have been just as popular?

74 replies

seventyfive · 16/04/2014 18:46

Food banks are in the news today as more and more people are using them. Whilst I think is is awful not to be able to afford food, when I think back 10-15 years ago when I was in my early 20's with small children, I remember finding it really hard to get by, and so did lots of my friends.

Food banks are great, and I wish we had them back then as I remember getting by on just a few £ per week, and we didn't have Aldi/lidl back then either.

It does make me question the repeated 'more people are using food banks' story, as they people now have more opportunity to use food banks now when I think there have always been people who are really struggling?

OP posts:
eggeggduck · 16/04/2014 18:58

Yabu. People below the poverty line are a lot more numerous than 10 years ago. We've just gone through the worst recession since the depression.

creamteas · 16/04/2014 19:03

YABU

10 years ago, stopping benefits was done only when it was really deserved. Now it is routine and encouraged on flimsy excuses.

WhosLookingAfterCourtney · 16/04/2014 19:04

Yabu, you have to be referred to a food bank, it's not like another supermarket Hmm

HolidayCriminal · 16/04/2014 19:05

10 yrs ago no, but 25 yrs ago I think yes.

weeonion · 16/04/2014 19:06

YABU

It is not that they are popular - it is that they ate necessary and a lifeline. I don't think anyone goes to them just to be part of a current trend...

We have more children living in poverty than 10 years ago.

mercibucket · 16/04/2014 19:08

food banks have been around a long time Hmm

LadyMaryLikesCake · 16/04/2014 19:08

Food is far more expensive than it was 10 years ago, as are utility bills and wages and benefits haven't kept up. I remember my first water bill, it was £30 for the year. Now it's £200 Hmm I think this is what's to blame. 10 years ago it was hard to feed your family and pay the bills but most people managed. Now it's pay the bills or feed your children. What are people going to do?

gordyslovesheep · 16/04/2014 19:10

YABU people have to be approved to use food banks - you can't just rock up and get food

the rise is in the people ELIGIBLE for food banks - those in need

and 10 years ago there where not so many of them - but there where food banks

mercibucket · 16/04/2014 19:12

history of soup kitchens, as they used to be called

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_kitchens

miners strike is what i remember the 80s food parcels from

gamerchick · 16/04/2014 19:14

10 years ago I was paying 35 quid a month for fuel.. now it's 150 quid a month Hmm

how can you even compare 10 years ago to today?

manicinsomniac · 16/04/2014 19:14

I think popular is the wrong word ...

other than that, I don't actually know but think it is likely YANBU. 10 years ago might be a bit inaccurate but I can't believe people are poorer now than they were in the early 80s.

LadyMaryLikesCake · 16/04/2014 19:15

IIRC the last time we had a recession (in the 80s) the EC donated cans of food to the UK. Stewing steak or stewed horse I think. It was a continental foodbank!

KissesBreakingWave · 16/04/2014 19:18

There were food banks ten years ago, and they weren't in nearly as much demand.

Basically the current Con-Lib coalition did exactly what the Con-Lib coalition of the 30s did, with exactly the same results. Except, as PP points out, tney were called soup kitchens back then.

Goblinchild · 16/04/2014 19:21

I agree about the bills, I keep a set from 20 years ago, and 10 years ago, as well as the last two years. Quarterly bills, petrol and food have soared in price.

Original poster
seventyfive · 16/04/2014 19:27

Perhaps slightly longer than 10 years ago, maybe 12 but I remember DH earned at that point 14k, I was at home with 2 babies, and we received £2.70 per month in family credit. Then working tax credit came it, that went up to about £450 per month which of course made a big difference.
Tax credits have continued to go up since then.

OP posts:
Grennie · 16/04/2014 19:27

YABU, it is sanctions on benefits that are really driving the growth of food banks. This is new.

fivepackets · 16/04/2014 19:28

No, I was on benefits as a single mum ten years ago and although I was poor I always had enough for food and heating. I was on income support so there were no jobseeking requirements and so no sanctions. These days most of those going to food banks are those who should be getting benefits but are messed around by DWP, or are in work but have income problems due to things like zero hours contracts or waiting for tax credits to come through. Plus there are more cuts now - bedroom tax, benefit cap and council tax support. It's much harder to get crisis loans (crisis loans under that name are abolished, but councils can award a similar loan, but have more stringent requirements, e.g. have to be referred by CAB).Things like that ran a lot more smoothly years ago, and I'm sure it's a deliberate inconvenience set up by those in govt. Also inflation in food/energy prices is much higher - I could easily feed my family a basic but nutritious diet back then.

Impatientismymiddlename · 16/04/2014 19:30

YABU - benefit sanctions are much more harsh and more often imposed than they were 10 years ago. We also don't have crisis loans and emergency grants like we used to. The cost of utilities has also exceeded inflation by a long way leaving many families both working and unemployed struggling to feed themselves.

LadyMaryLikesCake · 16/04/2014 19:33

My gas bill for 12 months is 1k. There's only 2 of us and we don't use the heating all the time, and we have a log burner so it's usually low, and it's a new boiler, but it's 1K. That's a hell of a lot of money and some families pay more! The utility companies are bleeding people dry.

AdoraBell · 16/04/2014 19:38

I don't think popular is the most accurate word OP because it implies choice.

And YABU, there were less people living on and below the poverty line 10 years ago.

Impatientismymiddlename · 16/04/2014 19:41

The cost of housing and childcare is also far greater than it was 10 years ago which adds to the numbs of people living in poverty.

ManateeEquineOHara · 16/04/2014 19:49

Yabu - there were food banks 10 years ago. I used one abt 14 years ago.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 16/04/2014 19:49

I think probably if you didn't realize they existed ten years ago, you were either exceptionally unlucky or maybe you weren't really in need of them?

Churches used to send out flyers asking students where I was if they could consider coming in on holidays like Christmas to help out, because otherwise it was pretty miserable. So I do remember they existed though I feel fortunate I wasn't in need.

CaisleanDraiochta · 16/04/2014 19:50

YABU

10 years ago, if you weren't able to make ends meet, part of the welfare budget was set aside called the Social fund. In an emergency, such as having no food, you could apply for a Crisis loan from this pot of money, which you would then pay back over the following weeks in small amounts. Then you were able to buy food of your own choosing, from an actual shop and retain some of your dignity.

The current coalition government have done away with Crisis loans so now there is no choice but to use a foodbank. You cannot choose your own food, you get what you are given and are grateful, matter what circumstances lead to you needing to use the foodbank. Even better the government seem to have persuaded Jo Public that she should be funding this by donating regularly!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 16/04/2014 19:51

Oh, and Lidl has been in the UK since 1994 ... I had to look that one up cos I can't remember when my mum started shopping there, but I do remember it was some time ago!