researchers have linked budget cuts and sanctions against benefit claimants to increasing use of food banks. in a twelve-month period from 2014 to 2015, over one million people in the united kingdom had used a food bank, representing a "19% year-on-year increase in food bank use". the use of food banks almost doubled between 2013 and 2017. a study published in the "british medical journal" in 2015 found that each one percentage point increase in the rate of jobseeker's allowance claimants sanctioned was associated with a 0.09 percentage point rise in food bank use. research by the trussell trust found that the use of food banks increased more in areas where universal credit was introduced.