It is a league of shame and the UK has a shocking place on it.
According to the European Union researchers EuroStat, between 2009-10 and 2013-14, the UK fell from 10th to 16th position in a table measuring food poverty in Europe. In 2009-10, four per cent of people in the UK were unable to afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish, or the vegetarian equivalent, every second day; last year, it was 8.7 per cent. What that means, shockingly, is that, in one of the richest countries in the world, thousands of people regularly cannot afford to eat a decent meal.
Many of the families who find themselves in this dire situation have been turning to food banks, and as food poverty has increased so has the demand for their services. A report by the medical journal The Lancet says that, in the last 12 months, there has been a 163 per cent rise in the use of food banks in the UK. The volunteers who run the banks are doing a wonderful job, but the fact that so many people are increasingly having to turn to them is a disgrace in a country as affluent as ours.
There is no single explanation, but central to the problem of food poverty is the continuing cuts to benefits for those out of work and the shocking low levels of pay for many of those in work. For five years, the austerity programme has kept benefits down and imposed sanctions that have pushed people further into crisis. Now that the Conservatives have a majority at Westminster, the pain is likely to continue.
What this means for many ordinary people is laid out in the Welfare Reform Tracking study commissioned by the Scottish Government, which shows many people accessing benefits are living in constant fear of further cuts. The sanctions that have been applied, often without warning, have also contributed to the precariousness of many people's lives and often push them over the edge so that they have to rely on food banks.
However, an easing of austerity and the most ruthless excesses of the welfare reforms are not the only answer. Many of those living in financial crisis have jobs (in fact, 44 per cent of working age adults in extreme poverty live in households where at least one adult is in employment) so tackling low pay must also be part of the way forward. The minimum wage has not kept pace with rising costs and should be raised to a more realistic rate that reflects the true cost of living.
There are other issues which need to be tackled - not least a fairer distribution of the tax burden across the UK - but austerity and low pay are the two main factors driving people towards food banks. Unless they are urgently tackled, there will be no end in sight to the shameful phenomenon of people living in food poverty in 21st century Scotland.
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