The UK’s biggest food bank organisation handed out 50 per cent more emergency food parcels to Southwark residents in dire need from April-September this year compared to 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
The Trussell Trust distributed 4,391 food parcels over the six-month period in the borough, compared to 2,293 in 2019. Some 1,482 of these went to children – a stat that Southwark’s representative on the London Assembly called “awful beyond words”.
The pandemic has driven many people into poverty or made their conditions worse. Some 42,000 Southwark residents – nearly one in ten people in the borough – were on universal credit by October this year.
Bermondsey food bank wants bigger premises as Universal Credit drop promises ‘tough winter ahead’
To make things worse for those people, the temporary increase in universal credit that the government brought in at the start of the pandemic was scrapped in October. At the time of the cut, the News spoke to one recently bereaved widow from Bermondsey, who said without her family supporting her she would struggle to survive.
Rising food prices and higher energy costs have added to the squeeze for many people. Kathy Heather, of Love North Southwark food pantry in Bermondsey, said recently that demand for the service had been rising.
Marina Ahmad, Labour’s London Assembly member for Southwark and Lambeth, called on the government to reinstate the temporary extra £20 of universal credit on a permanent basis.
Ms Ahmad said: “The idea of children going without food this winter is awful beyond words. The fact that we live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world only serves to compound this injustice.
“It is shameful that so many households in our community, and a significant number with children, have been plunged into food insecurity.
“Over the last decade, the lowest income Londoners have been left to fall through the holes that the Government has actively poked in our safety net.
“This winter, too many will be facing the stark choice of eat or heat.”
Local Labour MP Neil Coyle told the News in October that Labour “exist to try and remove demand for food banks and end the need for food banks.”
He added: “Whilst it’s great and brilliant that [the food bank is] here and the model is brilliant, to have this additional support for people who are feeling the squeeze is brilliant – but fundamentally the system is broken. Low incomes need tackling and the benefits system needs to be fixed.”
The Department for Work and Pensions, which manages the benefits programme, has defended the decision, saying that the increase in universal credit was always intended to be temporary.
A spokesperson added: “It was designed to help claimants through the economic shock and financial disruption of the toughest stages of the pandemic, and it has done so.
“Universal credit will continue to provide vital support for those both in and out of work and it’s right that the government should focus on our Plan for Jobs, supporting people back into work and supporting those already employed to progress and earn more.”