To think that food banks who limit to three weeks are as mean spirited as Universal Credit?

[MammaTJ]

I have been reading on FB about someone struggling due to problems with universal credit. They say they have used their three food banks and an extra two they gave them!

When I had to have food bank boxes I got one a week until I told them I did not need them any more, I had them for around 8 months. I think three or five is mean and people in need are people in need until they no longer need it, ie, their circumstances change!

My change was actually getting PIP, which meant an extra £300 a month!

AIBU?

What is this system to get money to people? Transferring to UC means NO money for 5 weeks at the least. Nothing. To people who already have no money. How is the supermarket and outlet going to delivery food to people without any payment, especially as there are many, many places that have no Waitrose?

Universal Credit has been a feeding trough for well-connected IT firms. A failure. It should be scrubbed.

Mamma you come across incredibly entitled with a very sad view of what food banks are actually there for.

As someone else up thread has already posted, they are not free supermarkets. It's meant for emergency crisis situations where people literally have nothing.

It's disgraceful that you were allowed to abuse the charity for 8 months. Any benefit problems should be sorted out much, much quicker than that but I appreciate it may not have been your fault.

I think there has to be a limit on food bank hand outs as sadly your post has shown, they are being misused.

It's worth adding that many churches have financial assistance funds as well, for our church, you have to live in the parish, not even be a regular attendee of the church to be entitled to apply. Recently they gave money to a family with sick relatives to cover travel costs to/from the hospital.

If anyone has friends/family struggling enough to need food banks, it is worth a conversation to find out if your local parish church can help (I know that is not what this thread is about, but worth getting the info out)

The limit here is 2 a year. Beyond that it's the discretion of the referrer. A client of mine had has 7 so far.

I did t realise until this week that a stay in hospital gets your benefits cut. So older people are discharged to a freezing home and no money.

The cruelty of a conservative government knows no bounds.

ragwort
we never, ever turn anyone away
Thank you for helping your community. However, that's obviously possible while you have an abundance of food, but unless you actually have loaves & fish powers you must realise that if a food bank lacks food for everyone then turning people away is inevitable?
Just out of interest, how do you get donations/promote your food bank?
It's not something I think about regularly (for shame) and usually I just give to whichever trolley is in the supermarket I'm in.

Jesus wept OP are you on glue?!?! (Only asking because no one else has asked yet)

Stop calling food banks a ‘service’. They are NOT a service. There is no fairy unicorn that delivers all this unlimited food to a food bank to be dished out whenever someone asks. Neither are good banks a company. They are run by charities that rely on public funding and donations to do what they do, which is essentially take donations of food from ordinary people, to give to other people that need it because they are desperate. But here’s the thing;

There’s no money for ordinary Joe Bloggs anymore. At first there was no money for those that needed to use food banks, then that number grew. Then those people that had money to buy extra to share started to have less and less money and they had to join those needing to use food banks and now the next tier of people have barely enough money to feed themselves so they can’t buy extra to share anymore and as a result the food banks are starting to look like Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.

But because they’re charities, the want to help everyone that needs it. So they have to ration what’s left. There’s no other way. Would it be ok for someone to receive 5 donations when there may be a family next in line to only be able to receive one because there’s nothing left?

If I were you OP I would be seriously thinking twice before using a food bank again and if you’re truely outraged think about how you can help.

What we’re talking about here is effectively medieval alms for the poor and it’s a disgrace.

'I did t realise until this week that a stay in hospital gets your benefits cut. So older people are discharged to a freezing home and no money.

The cruelty of a conservative government knows no bounds.'

Not just older people. Anyone in hospital, so that includes the disabled, people with long-term conditions, children with cancer who often have to return to hospital every time they spike a temperature.

I’d be concerned that the government would cut or delay benefits even further if they thought that foodbanks would provide food long term. The current need for foodbanks should shame the government.

Expat I know - the older people were just an example. And I thought I'd seen it all wrt deprivation after a decade on sw

Agree Panda - it's a shame that people need to use food banks, the shame shouldn't be levied at the food bank volunteers who are doing what they can to meet a growing need, without necessarily having a growing contribution level.

Food bank's aren't a service, it's usually people trying to do something, anything, to help. Sometimes it's not enough, but it's not an 'entitlement', it's people trying to help where they can.

It is a disgrace that food banks are needed. It used to be that you would get benefits until your first paycheck for example.
I know I couldn't have managed when I have been very ill, if I had been single. DP works so we managed.
I know people who have shoplifted basic food because they did not have enough.

jlbcredit - we are just fortunate in that we live in a small town, the Food Bank gets regular 'publicity' via the local newspaper and our FB page and the local community are incredibly generous about giving donations (food and cash) - I do appreciate that we are considerably luckier than many other Food Banks - we do re-distribute excess stocks to other local Food Banks who are not so well supported.

Where are they going to get all this food to help people indefinitely OP?

The supermarkets have enough food left over to feed the hungry in this country. A lot of them do give it away to organizations like Fareshare which then distribute it to various projects.
One of the problems has been that food earmarked for food projects has found its way before now back onto the shelves of the supermarkets. Basically people were returning it and demanding cash. This lead to one of the major supermarkets pulling the plug on their contributions.

I spend 5 days a week in a local independent non-profit cafe that runs a food bank (amongst others things) in a deprived and disengaged area of North East England.

It is very rare for us to outright refuse someone and when we do it is normally as a direct result of the person's behaviour i.e we had someone in for a food bank try to steal from us.

We do request information on the referral form to allow us to assess need. For example if someone had been sanctioned for 6 weeks, then we would know that we would most likely see them once a week for the duration. We have had people try to "agency hop" so they'll come via then local job centre get anywhere between 1 and 7 days worth of food on a Monday then try to come via someone else the following day despite knowing that we gave them ample assistance for the time scale needed.

Seriously, out of the money we generate from the cafe, we get a delivery from fareshare once a week that we can taylor to suit the needs of those who access our service so we get cheeses, bread, ambient items, milkshakes, yoghurt, cooked meats etc as well as donations from the public and using cafe income to do a food bank shop.

For example for a family of 2 for 5 days they'd get something similar to this depending on cooking facilities etc;
Cereal - box of
Milk - 1 ltr
Beans x 1
Bread x 1
Soup x 4
Cheese x 1
Meatballs x 1
Pasta x 1
Sauce x 1
Curry x 1
Rice x 1
Tuna/corn beef x 1
6 pack sausages x 1
Tinned veg x 1
Instant noodles/spicy rice x 2
Tea/coffee & sugar

We can and do cater for everyone from the homeless/no fixed abode (usually via our one for the wall scheme) right through to those who have all facilities.

We are not saints, we are simply people with a variety of life experiences who are trying our best to fill a need. Yes occasionally we do have to be strict, even more occasionally we turn people away (possibly once every 3 months), it takes a huge amount of organising, communicating with services, sign posting for further support and a lot of other things.

I HATE that we need this. I hate seeing the daily struggles people face day in day out. I hate seeing them sometimes to upset to even look at me, to embarrassed to lift their head.

It really isn't food banks that are mean, the system has a huge huge huge amount to answer for. Universal credit has had a massive impact on a lot of people. Go volunteer for a food bank, even just the admin side of it sometimes makes my head spin.

' Universal credit has had a massive impact on a lot of people. '

This point is being continually missed as the roll out is staggered.

You know, I think that the government should be set up to offer food to those who need a bit of help, a little like the crisis loans, except if someone needs food, they get the same as a food bank would issue, if someone needs electric or gas, they get a voucher, clothes- voucher, transport costs- bus or train card.

It's not brilliant, but it would at least ensure those who have the specific need of food etc receive what they need.

Once upon a time, the welfare state did give food vouchers for those that had hit a temporary crisis

How strange... OP never came back.

When people are sanctioned would it not be easier just to give them food vouchers and then the foodbanks would just be back up.

So OP you were not getting your £300 per month PIP but you were getting something - ESA I imagine or as you say you don't work JSA?

You either have a partner who is earning or your household is claiming benefits. And probably Housing Benefit to which you would more than likely be entitled if you are not earning. And Council Tax benefit and possible others.

So you were not surviving on zero income. (No doubt you were finding things tough though). You had income and yet you had free food for 5 months (donated by people who may well have been struggling themselves) And you think we are mean ?????

Haven't RTFT but food banks are short term. They can't afford to support people long term and nor should they have to, since it's papering over the cracks caused by this government.

When people are sanctioned would it not be easier just to give them food vouchers and then the foodbanks would just be back up.
Alternatively the government could not apply sanctions to already desperate people.

[[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dwp-defeated-in-court-again-over-unlawful-retroactive-benefit-sanctions-a7006466.html
sanctions unlawful]]

trivial reasons

Our local 'official' food bank only gives 3 days worth of food and you can only apply 5 times a year. Worst of all you can only go if referred by a nice well paid 'state employee like social worker, teacher health visitor etc. And yes all these are well paid compared to most people.

All this is to 'protect' the rest of us who donate from exploitation from 'those' poor people who will exploit them and prevent those poor 'worthy' people who really need the help from getting it.

At the same time we have two unofficial free food providers who rely solely on trust and people can ask as often as they like etc etc and they manage just fine.

Are food banks as mean spirited as universal credit? No i would not go that far but some are not great and reinforcing the idea that poor people cannot be trusted and need controls in place simply legitamises the vile nasty attitudes that are allowing governments with policies like universal credits to be voted in.