According to a Guardian article the study found austerity policies such as cuts to welfare and local services are driving the rapid spread of foodbanks in the UK. The research shows emergency food aid is most concentrated in areas where there are high levels of joblessness and benefit sanctions.
The Conservative-led coalition persistently refused to acknowledge a link between its economic and social security policies and the explosion in foodbanks. But the Oxford study, published in the British Medical Journal, shows demand for food parcels is strongest where poverty is accompanied by restrictions on, and reductions in, social assistance.
As part of our general election campaigning we are asking candidates to support the removal of the sanctions regime.
What we’re asking for and why
We want a welfare state that ensures everyone has a decent standard of living free from poverty, and for our highly-skilled members in the Department for Work and Pensions to be able to use their expertise in supporting people back to work, and help them receive the benefits they deserve.
Here are the key stats showing the impact of government policy on welfare over the last 5 years:
- £19 billion - has been cut from the welfare budget each year by the coalition government
- 25,000 - jobs lost in the DWP since 2010
- 1 in 4 - children living in poverty
- £28 billion - worth of cuts affecting disabled people’s benefits and their services
- 18,000 - the number of severely disabled people who rely on the Independent Living Fund which the government is scrapping
- 1.6 million - pensioners live below the poverty line.
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