Food poverty in UK has reached level of 'public health emergency', warn experts

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The Government may be covering up the extent to which austerity and welfare cuts are adding to the problem

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Hunger in Britain has reached the level of a “public health emergency” and the Government may be covering up the extent to which austerity and welfare cuts are adding to the problem, leading experts have said.

In a letter to the British Medical Journal, a group of doctors and senior academics from the Medical Research Council and two leading universities said that the effect of Government policies on vulnerable people’s ability to afford food needed to be “urgently” monitored.

A surge in the number of people requiring emergency food aid, a decrease in the amount of calories consumed by British families, and a doubling of the number of malnutrition cases seen at English hospitals represent “all the signs of a public health emergency that could go unrecognised until it is too late to take preventative action,” they write.

Despite mounting evidence for a growing food poverty crisis in the UK, ministers maintain there is “no robust evidence” of a link between sweeping welfare reforms and a rise in the use of food banks. However, publication of research into the phenomenon, commissioned by the Government itself, has been delayed, amid speculation that the findings may prove embarrassing for ministers.

“Because the Government has delayed the publication of research it commissioned into the rise of emergency food aid in the UK, we can only speculate that the cause is related to the rising cost of living and increasingly austere welfare reforms,” the public health experts write.

The authors of the letter, who include Dr David Taylor-Robinson and Professor Margaret Whitehead of Liverpool University’s Department of Public Health, say that malnutrition can have a long-lasting impact on health, particularly among children.

Chris Mould, chief executive of the Trussell Trust, the largest national food bank provider said that one in three of the 350,000 people who required a food bank hand-out this year were children.

He called the BMJ letter a “timely warning” and criticised the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) for keeping its report into the problem “under wraps”.

The report was commissioned by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in February, and was completed by an academic at Warwick University. However, publication has been stalled.

“We’ve sought to engage with the DWP in order to share our data and share our experience, with a view to exploring what practical action could be taken to ease the problem,” Mr Mould told The Independent. “We’ve had refusals, letters saying they do not want to talk to us. We find that deeply disappointing.”

“We want to see that research. It was commissioned by Government, pulled together by a highly reputable academic and we want to see what it says. We understand that the reason it has not been published is that DWP has queried aspects of the data in it and has been preventing its publication for months. That, we think, is not acceptable.”

In their letter, Dr Taylor-Robinson, Professor Whitehead and colleagues cite figures recently released by the Government which revealed a surge in the number of malnutrition cases diagnosed at English hospitals since the recession – up from 3,161 in 2008/09 to 5,499 in 2012/13. They also draw attention to reports from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which found a decrease in the number of calories purchased by families, as well as “substitution with unhealthier foods, especially in families with young children”.

“Malnutrition in children is particularly worrying because exposures during sensitive periods can have lifelong effects, increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and other adult chronic diseases,” they write. “Access to an adequate food supply is the most basic of human needs and rights.”

A government spokesperson said that the Coalition had “help[ed] families with the cost of living [by] increasing the tax-free personal allowance to £10,000, freezing council tax and freezing fuel duty.”

A Defra spokesperson said that the food aid report would be published after a “necessary review and quality assurance process” was complete.

But Luciana Berger, Labour’s shadow minister for public health, said that it was a “national scandal” that people were suffering from malnutrition in the UK.

“This shouldn’t be happening in 21st century Britain,” she said. “With hundreds of thousands having to access emergency food aid, it’s sadly unsurprising that people are both eating less and eating less healthily. David Cameron needs to listen to what the experts are saying and tackle the cost of living crisis driving people into food poverty.”

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/food-poverty-in-uk-has-reached-level-of-public-health-emergency-warn-experts-8981051.html

Very sad. I have to say I wish I was more shocked and surprised .

This should be head line news.
Where are the labour politicians!
They should be shouting about this. We should be shouting about this.
This is victorian Britain.
How dare those Eton fops do this.
The scariest is that the nearly poor will attack the poor for being scroungers and feckless.
As they have been conditioned by the press and media.
It's a national disgrace.

How right he was except that the seeds were sown 30 years ago.

If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you. I warn you that you will have pain – when healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance – when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right. I warn you that you will have poverty – when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can't pay. I warn you that you will be cold – when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford.
I warn you that you must not expect work – when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don't earn, they don't spend. When they don't spend, work dies. I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light. I warn you that you will be quiet – when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. I warn you that you will have defence of a sort – with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding. I warn you that you will be home-bound – when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up. I warn you that you will borrow less – when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.

If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old.

There is a petition started on Change.org by Jack Monroe calling for a parliamentary debate into this issue, and why the use of food banks is soaring.

I'm not sure than MNHQ like us to link to political petitions, so I won't, but I'm sure it's quite easy to find, if people wanted to do so.

This is devastating but sadly not shocking. I walk past the foodbank on the way to work and on the way home. The queue doesn't stop

Agree, wish I was more shocked than surprised.

I think the trouble is the stealth increases and fuel prices, tax on fuel... All these things we had no choice but to pay, but once prices rise and we pay, the companies that provide will never seek to reduce them significantly. Token freezes on duty are tokens, they are not solutions or an admission that govt policy is forcing many many in our country into poverty.

I think there is a lot more poverty that flies slightly under the radar but while pride keeps us silent the government will not be forced to take heed and face up to this crisis. I was proud to support the petition, I think 70,000 did along with me. Well done jack monroe for keeping this in the spotlight. It is a disgrace and no child deserves to go hungry. It is our basic desire to nourish our children yet feeding a family well, not extravagantly, is something that is becoming harder, and harder to do.

The Tory led Coalition will do everything to hide poverty . They have no policy against poverty But have policies for creating it

Manifesto - Kinnock was spot-on. The Thatcher cultists will never change their view of Mark Thatcher's Mummy, but so many of the ills of today's UK trace back to the not so Blessed Margaret.

Suppressed report: welfare reform link to homelessness and food bank use

A Tory council has withdrawn its own official report linking welfare cuts to a range of social problems from food poverty to violent crime.

Now you see it now you don't. No sooner had Kent Online reported the details of an official Kent county council report linking welfare reform to rises in homelessness, food bank use and violent crime, than the report was suppressed.

Council leader Paul Carter, whose name was apparently on the report even though he hadn't read it, told Kent Messenger Group political editor Paul Francis that he had he decided to take it down from the council website because he did not agree with its conclusions.

So what was it about the report's findings that Carter found so disagreeable?

Carter doesn't say. The report is clear, however, that welfare changes - bedroom tax, benefit cap, disability benefit reform, council tax benefit cuts - have helped detonate a small explosion of social misery in the county. We may hazard a guess that this insight is the cause of acute political embarrassment to one of the most senior Tory figures in local government.

Take the following findings:

• Some crime types have increased "significantly" in poorer areas of the county. In two of the most deprived wars - Margate Central and Cliftonville West - violent crime and theft levels are "considerably above predicted level" based on historical patterns over the past five years, while there is also evidence of increased domestic violence. The report states:

The evidence offered suggests that the change is related to... welfare reform as no alternative explanatory factor is yet apparent.

• Homelessness has increased in Kent. Homelessness acceptances were up 25% between January and March 2013 compared to the same quarter in 2012. The number of homeless people placed in temporary bed and breakfast accommodation is a "concern": there were 183 Kent families in B&Bs at the end of March 2013, an year-on-year increase of 22% and more than double the number three years ago.

• The number of people using food banks in the county has "increased sharply". The total number of users of the four operational Trussell trust food banks in Kent in 2012-13 was 1,618. The total for the same four food banks, for the first six months of 2012-13 alone had almost doubled to 3,195. These figures are likely to understate the true extent of food poverty in the county, the report notes, as they do not take account of the myriad other sources of local food aid, such as soup kitchens.

• There's been an increase in the demand for so-called "front desks" information and advice services in Kent libraries and children's centres. Much of this increase (which will require extra investment in staff and training) "can be attributed to recent welfare reforms", says the report. Meanwhile, welfare reforms have triggered a rise in queries around debt management at Citizen's Advice Bureaux.

The link between welfare reform and growth in food bank use is, as we have seen, a particularly sensitive issue for the government, which has persistently denied there is any robust proof of a connection. The report, produced by the council's business intelligence, research and evaluation unit, is unequivocal however:

The most common reasons for people using food banks appear to be changes to the benefit system, including changes to crisis loan eligibility rules, delays in [benefit] payments, Jobs Seekers Allowance sanctions, and sickness benefit re-assessment. The demands are likely to be medium to long term.

It adds:

Perhaps the most compelling evidence of the impact of welfare reforms on individuals and families is the sharp increase in the number of people using food banks

The report is cautious overall: it says its conclusions are "fairly tentative" as we are still in the early stages of the welfare changes. But it is clear that the principle supposed benefit of welfare reform - more people moving into employment - is yet to be demonstrated in Kent - if indeed it can ever be.

According to Carter the report will eventually see the light of day, at least once he has had time to finesse its findings:

The report will reappear but I want to make sure that we have a fair and well balanced report. I read it quickly and decided that there were conclusions being drawn that could be linked with a whole range of other issues.

He denied that by suppressing the report he was "playing politics", although this quote from Carter suggests otherwise:

This one slipped through the net and I do have some concerns about the report.

• Thanks to Kent Online you can see the suppressed report in full here

www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2013/adec/04/suppressed-tory-report-welfare-reform-link-to-foodbanks-homelessness

The very fact that food banks exist should be proof that something is very wrong. On paper everyone gets enough benefits for those basic things. If that were true then why would anyone need to visit a food bank?

Perhaps people are not spending wisely. I am not convinced of the neccessity. No written report or documentary that I have seen has given a specific and detailed example of a household's income and expenditure so I can see where their income is going before food.

"Perhaps people are not spending wisely"

People don't have the money to spend. It's that simple.

A fixed limited income means filling stomachs rather than addressing nutrition.

Iceland does free delivery, hot meal for a pound a head, microwave doesn't take up much electric so you might be able to have the heating on for a bit too.

I'd be interested to know more about malnutrition figures, if it's older people or children. If it's working age - that's when the system is seriously buggered.

Tory scum.

Our labour mp tried apparently m.shieldsgazette.com/news/local-news/south-shields-mp-emma-s-anger-at-food-banks-debate-snub-1-5829814

I wonder what they have to gain by ignoring it? Whittle down the population a bit? :(

Eating wisely - yes that will be it.

David Cameron at a banquet to talk about people making do with less

I said spending wisely - not eating wisely.

As I said upthread, I have yet to see an example of an actual real persons's income and expenditure that neccessitates the use of a food bank.

Without facts and real life examples this is all just political chest thumping

I have a couple of issues with the letter, one is that it talks about Text of the letter, these points about access to food:

"Furthermore, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has reported a decrease in calories purchased and substitution with unhealthier foods, especially in families with young children.

"Access to an adequate food supply is the most basic of human needs and rights. We should not allow food poverty in the UK to be the next public health emergency."

Certainly in my area, with the rise of budget supermarkets, access to good quality very cheap food has increased massively. The substitution I genuinely fear is to do with choice.

The other issue I have is about rise in the use if food banks,. This surely reflects the fact they hardly existed a few years ago.

I was on an extremely low income 15 years ago, and food was very expensive and there was little choice to go somewhere cheaper, family credit back then , 2 kids on a family salary of 12k was £2.70 per month.

Now on a £19k salary tax credits is several hundred. I'm sure if food banks has existed back then they would have been just as needed if not more.

That's a poor attempt at whitewashing the disastrous effects Tory policies are having on working families, and it directly contradicts what food bank charity workers are saying in that the large increase is due to people suffering from benefit sanctions, tightening of disability aid, the bedroom tax, and other austerity measures.

In fact, there is evidence that the DWP, under Ian Psychopath Duncan Smith, is actively trying to cover up the rise in food bank use thanks to DWP decisions:

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The DWP is refusing to refer desperate benefits claimants to food banks, according to the country’s largest operator. The Trussell Trust has claimed that Iain Duncan Smith’s department has “privately reneged” on an agreement for Jobcentres to refer needy claimants using an agreed procedure — and banned the collection key data on food bank use.

After ignorant attempts by a Tory minister to blame increased food bank use on charities, it has emerged that the DWP have dropped the requirement for staff to record the reason for a food bank referral and to provide claimants with vouchers — meaning that food banks cannot assess need at the other end. Conveniently enough, this also reduces the amount of embarrassing statistical data in circulation on food banks.

These revelation fly in the face of a response from David Cameron in PMQs yesterday, who is apparently under the impression that Jobcentres were still referring people — when they haven’t been since April.

“We have done something that the food bank movement had been asking for for years, but that the Labour Government did not grant because they were worried about the public relations — namely, the ability to say to people in Jobcentre Plus who needed help that they could go to a food bank. The Labour Government might not have wanted to do that because it was bad publicity; we did it because it was the right thing.”

The charity’s executive chairman Chris Mould said:

“We’re delighted that David Cameron understands the importance of enabling Jobcentres to refer people in crisis to foodbanks but we are deeply concerned that some people within DWP are doing their best to block the agreement that makes this possible.”

Naturally, austerity architect George Osborne still hasn’t visited one yet.

politicalscrapbook.net/2013/09/dwp-has-stopped-refering-desperate-people-to-food-banks-claims-charity/

"I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old."
^^ this

BMW6 - I think very often the problem is unexpected changes. If you are on a bare minimum budget (which is what benefits are designed to be, and what minimum wage employment gives you) then you have no cushion.

So if your benefits don't come through, if your employer doesn't pay you on Friday, if you have to fix the car and can't get to work without it - well then there is no money for food and that is that.