Universal Credit wait 'left mum thinking of giving up her two childen so they could eat'
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Universal Credit is driving destitute families into "deep financial crisis" and forcing them to food banks, a charity warned today.
The Trussell Trust said just 8% of 284 food bank users it surveyed believed the new benefit is enough to live on.
Launching a report showing it dished out a record 1.33million food parcels last year, the Trust said a stroke victim was left with nothing after leaving hospital - while a mother considered giving up her children to allow them to eat.
Other claimants were choosing between food and a bus fare to the Jobcentre to avoid a benefit sanction, MPs heard.
Trussell Trust chief executive Emma Revie pointed the finger at the five-week wait - formerly a six-week wait - for the all-in-one benefit Universal Credit.
The government insists advance loans are available to help bridge the gap when people join UC.
But Ms Revie said many in the charity's survey hadn't been offered help.
(Image: Trussell Trust)
She told today's launch in Westminster: "We collected stories of a stroke victim left with nothing when discharged from hospital as their benefits were stopped.
“A woman whose husband suffers from PTSD with money for the electric heating.
“And even a mother who considered giving up her own two children while she waited for her Universal Credit to come in so that they could finally get some food.
“Tens of billions of pounds have been taken out of our welfare system in recent years, and this process shows no signs of stopping."
Chief executive Emma Revie said for many UC is simply "not enough to make ends meet" and leaves people "locked into debt, hunger, destitution and misery".
David Finch of the Resolution Foundation think tank said the benefit was "just less generous" than the current system for some groups, like single parents under 25.
He added the rise of food banks showed a "failure of the welfare state".
(Image: Getty)
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "The reasons why people use food banks are complex, so it's wrong to link a rise to any one cause.
"This research is based on anecdotal evidence from a small, self-selecting sample of less than 0.04% of current Universal Credit claimants, whereas Universal Credit is working for the vast majority who claim it.
"It was also carried out before our significant improvements to Universal Credit came into effect at the Budget; such as 100% advances, which support people before their first payment, removing the seven waiting days and two weeks' extra housing support for claimants moving onto Universal Credit."
But foodbank managers at today's meeting said describing the figures as anecdotal was "unacceptable".
Nearly 12 million meals were handed out to hungry families by Britain’s biggest food bank operator in the past year, the Trust's grim figures revealed.
(Image: PA)
The record number of parcels distributed to hard-up households is a shocking 13% rise on the previous 12 months.
It comes despite eight years of almost unbroken economic growth - suggesting poverty pay and benefit cuts are hitting the poorest in society.
Trussell Trust volunteers gave out 1,332,952 three day emergency food supplies between April 1, 2017 and March 31 this year.
Each contains enough for three meals a day, meaning a total of 11,996,568 were provided.
Meanwhile, benefits have been frozen for another year - meaning real incomes of families relying on welfare payments are hammered by inflation.
Benefit delays accounted for 24% of the network’s referrals in 2017-18, with benefit changes cited in 18% of cases.
Debts accounted for a rising percentage of referrals - up from 8% to 9% in the past year.
(Image: PA)
The charity, which runs more than 420 foodbanks, called for “an urgent inquiry into poor administration within Universal Credit and its effects, particularly in relation to insecure work”.
Living Wage Foundation director Tess Lanning said: “Many of those who are going hungry are also working, with one-in-six households referred to foodbanks in work.
“Our own research found over a third of parents working full-time and earning less than the real Living Wage are now regularly skipping meals.
(Image: Living Wage Foundation)
“That’s why we need to see more businesses step up, go beyond the government minimum, and commit to pay a Living Wage based on the cost of living.”
Rachel Alcock, of the End Hunger UK campaign, said: “The charity sector should not be picking up the pieces of a failing social security system.
“Payments should cover the basic costs of living, and the government must look again at the roll-out of Universal Credit and ensure our social security safety net is not pushing people into destitution.
“The End Hunger UK campaign has also been calling on government to measure levels of household food insecurity in the UK - so the numbers of people who aren't able to afford food could be properly understood."
Meanwhile, hungry kids have been found rummaging through school bins for half-eaten food because they do not get fed properly at home, teachers have warned.
In some schools, staff give kids at risk of malnutrition extra-large portions at lunchtime because they know it could be their only decent meal of the day.
A recent survey by the NEU teaching union found 87% of teachers said poverty affected kids’ learning to a “significant extent” and two thirds said poverty had worsened since 2015.
Caroline Rodgers, a head in Chesterfield, told the Times Educational Supplement: “Sometimes the kid will say, ‘I have a tummy ache’.
(Image: E+ / Getty Images)
“You ask them what they had for breakfast and they’ll say, ‘Mum didn’t have any food’.
“Other times you’ll just get that stare and they don’t need to say it.”
Nathan Atkinson, former head of an inner-city school in Leeds, added: “You’d find when you put fruit out, there were children who were putting three or four pieces of fruit in their pockets.
“Or somebody had discarded a half-eaten apple and another child had taken it out of the bin and was eating that apple – what was left of it.”