Food Poverty: The Causes and Solutions
In the UK, 1 in 3 (4.1 million) children live in poverty, with approximately 2.5 million in food insecure households. 72 percent of these children have parents that are in work.
A report by Human Rights Watch details some of the reasons for the numbers of people living in food poverty in the UK, they are:
In 2013, the UK Government introduced an arbitrary financial cap on the amount of welfare benefits a family can receive, and this was lowered further in 2016. The cap has negatively affected the income levels of families with children under the age of five, as well as single parents.
Starting in 2016, the government implemented a freeze on the majority of working-age welfare benefits to “workless” households, so that the payments received did not keep pace with inflation. It was believed that this would incentivise work among poor people who were claiming welfare benefits. As a result of this freeze, single-parent families stood to lose between £580-£770, while two-parent families would lose between £650-£825 per year. It is estimated that 40 percent of those affected by this freeze were responsible for children.
Furthermore, not only did the freeze mean that the payments did not keep up with inflation but also that they did not keep pace with the rise in food prices, with data showing that food prices are rising faster than income levels for the poorest segments of the population.
A third policy, introduced in 2017, is a “two-child limit” which curtails any child tax credit (a means tested benefit) to families for any child after their first two, with some exceptions. The arbitrary limit penalises low- and middle-income families for having more than two children.
The same report makes several recommendations on solutions to the problem of food poverty, which are:
The UK Government should publicly back the right to food as a basic human right, whilst also accepting that it is responsible for ensuring that no one in the UK goes hungry.
The Department for Work and Pensions should revise the current system in which Universal Credit payments are made in arrears, in one of two ways:
Make payments in advance, with no penalty for, or recovery of, overpayment from the first payment; or
A one-off, non-recoverable, grant-like payment should be given to cover the period from which a person enters the Universal Credit system until they receive their first payment, and thereafter continue to pay benefits in arrears. The grant should include a cash component, as well as vouchers redeemable at food retail outlets, rather than food banks.
It is recommended that the Treasury adopt policies to ensure welfare benefits are not eroded by inflation and the rising cost of living.
Whilst we wait and see if the government takes these recommendations on, civil society pushes on with campaigning efforts and with aims of providing food to those who are unable to afford it themselves.
Marcus Rashford, the England and Manchester United footballer, continues his fight to ensure no child in the UK goes to bed hungry with the #EndChildFoodPoverty campaign, where you can write to your MP using their pre-drafted letter, as well as finding some wonderful recipes created by chef Tom Kerridge.
Hartlepool Food Network and many other local voluntary and community organisations around the UK continue to provide access to food and other valuable services and resources, such as our recipe video tutorials, which can be found at the recipes tab at the top of the page.
The Right to Food campaign aims to enshrine people’s right to access food in UK law. This would mean that every person has a legal right to food, placing responsibility on our government to end hunger.
