Need For Food Banks Is Caused By Welfare Cuts, Research Shows

The government's welfare reforms, including benefit sanctions and the bedroom tax, are a central factor in the explosion in the numbers of impoverished people turning to charity food banks, an academic study has said. The study was carried out by Hannah Lambie-Mumford, a Sheffield University researcher who co-authored a recently published government report into the extent of food aid in the UK. That report concluded there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate a clear causal link between welfare reform and food bank demand in the UK. But Lambie-Mumford's new study says the rise in demand for charity food is a clear signal "of the inadequacy of both social security provision and the processes by which it is delivered". The report warns that as social security safety nets become weaker, there is a danger that charity food could become an integral part of the state welfare provision, or even a replacement for formerly state-funded emergency welfare schemes. Read more on the Guardian website.