Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the long-term need for food banks.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work
and Pensions () (Con)
My Lords, food banks are independent charitable organisations
where local communities come together to support one another.
This is a great example of the generosity of spirit across the
country. The Government have no formal role in monitoring or
projecting the activities of food banks. However, we understand
the pressures that individuals are facing, and that is why we are
taking action to support people across the UK, including by
increasing benefits by 10.1% in April.
(CB)
I thank the Minister for his reply and congratulate him on his
new appointment; although he is experienced on the Front Bench,
this is a new position.
A survey published yesterday revealed that more than half of NHS
trusts and hospital boards are either providing or looking into
the possibility of providing food banks for their medical staff.
Six of those hospitals together revealed that more than 5,000 of
their medical staff are looking for help from food banks every
month, of which 550 are nurses. Is there not something
fundamentally askew when, in an advanced wealthy country such as
ours, people doing a hard day’s work, including essential jobs
such as nursing, are unable to earn enough to live on without
having to seek help from food banks? Will the Government consider
setting a target date for when wages will rise enough so that
people can earn enough without seeking help?
(Con)
I thank the noble and right reverend Lord for his most kind
words. I have clearly taken on an important but sensitive
brief.
I am well aware of the issue surrounding nurses, as we all are in
this House. We take this issue seriously. The first thing is to
look at food bank usage. The noble and right reverend Lord might
know that we have included specific questions in the family
resources survey to measure and track food bank usage. The FRS is
a highly recognised publication used by government and academics
alike. This should draw out the information needed to look
further at what we can do, particularly in the NHS sector.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Trussell Trust identifies a social security system
that provides adequate protection as key to reducing the need for
food banks, which the trust thinks are not the answer. It reports
that between April and September last year nearly half a million
food parcels went to children. I too welcome the Minister to his
new role. What is his explanation for such an extensive need for
food banks among children?
(Con)
Surely that comes down to the fact that there are so many areas
where people are not just feeling the pinch but really struggling
to feed their families; children are very much part of that.
Having said that, the Government are taking substantial action to
do their best to mitigate these issues. As the noble Baroness
will know, from April 2023 we are increasing benefits in line
with inflation. They will rise by the September CPI inflation
rate, which was 10.1%.
(Con)
My Lords, the UK’s cooking skills have withered across the income
spectrum. One poll found that a quarter of British people could
not make beans on toast, and that four in 10 did not know how to
cook an omelette. Food pantry projects say that many clients—by
no means all—do not know how to use raw ingredients, but the cost
of ready meals has increased by 50% over the last year. Budgeting
is far harder without cooking skills. What are the Government
doing to enable adults to acquire them?
(Con)
My noble friend is right and makes the very good point that the
better targeting of education for adults and children on how to
buy and prepare food helps greatly towards better budgeting and
cutting household bills. My department promotes the principles of
healthy eating through platforms such as the NHS.UK website and
social marketing campaigns including Healthier Families. This
campaign aims to help families improve their health and
well-being by encouraging them to eat healthier and move more,
and it produces practical, evidence-based healthy eating advice,
such as step-by-step recipes.
(Lab)
My Lords, the majority of people—or a large percentage of people,
at least—are on universal credit because work does not pay and
wages are too low. Does the Minister agree that wages should
rise, particularly for our noble public servants, and that the
best way to improve your wages is to join a trade union? I hope
he agrees with me.
(Con)
I echo what I think these Benches have said before: trade unions
have a valuable role in our life. We have provided cost of living
support worth over £37 billion for 2022-23, including the £400
non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through
the energy bills support scheme. In addition, as the noble Lord
will know, we have the energy price guarantee, which will save a
typical British household around £900 this winter. I am sure
there is more that we can do, but we are very aware of the
issues.
(LD)
My Lords, I too welcome the Minister to his new role, and I am
grateful to hear that there is a survey about the use of food
banks. As more and more people become dependent on food banks, it
is quite clear that the 832,000 children using them are not
receiving the sort of diet they need for their intellectual and
physical development, and that emergency food cannot provide the
balanced diet that the Government recommend. What specific
measures will the Government take to ensure that children in poor
families are not even more disadvantaged by not receiving
adequate and proper nourishment for their development?
(Con)
The noble Baroness is right that nourishment for children is
incredibly important, including in schools. She will know that we
have extended free school meals to more groups of children than
any other Government over the past half a century, and we remain
committed to supporting the most disadvantaged children. Under
the benefits-based criteria, 1.9 million of the most
disadvantaged pupils are eligible for and claiming a free school
meal. As she will know, this extends to around 1.25 million more
infants, so it covers that area too.
My Lords, given the data published by the Trussell Trust in
December which revealed that 57% of people referred to food banks
who are in receipt of universal credit face government deductions
from their or their partner’s benefits income, could the Minister
outline what steps the Government will take to reform the debt
management process for universal credit?
(Con)
That is a very important part of our programme, and the
Government recognise the importance of safeguarding the welfare
of claimants who have incurred debt. The primary aim of
deductions in universal credit is to protect vulnerable claimants
by providing a last-resort repayment method for arrears of
essential services. With the extreme pressures there are at the
moment, I reassure the right reverend Prelate that we are doing
our very best to look at what more we can do to help people who
get into severe debt.
(Lab)
I welcome the Minister to his new brief; I very much look forward
to engaging with him in the months ahead. I thank the noble
Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, for her service in this role.
In 2010-11, the Trussell Trust ran around 35 food banks. Last
year, it ran 1,400 of them. Does this not go to the point made by
the noble and right reverend Lord, , that something
has happened and food banks have moved from the margin to the
mainstream of government policy? I want to ask the Minister a
really simple question: do the Government think that that is okay
or that it is a problem? If it is the latter, what are they going
to do about it?
(Con)
It is not okay. It is fair to say that we are continually looking
at different ways in which we can help the most vulnerable, and I
have set out some of them to the House this afternoon. On food
banks, which are linked to the noble Baroness’s question, as I
said, the family resources surveywill help us; it is important
for us to know what is going on. Let me also take this
opportunity to applaud all those volunteers who work in food
banks; they are doing vital work to help feed those who simply do
not know where their next meal is coming from.
(Con)
My Lords, in the past three weeks, whether in the newspaper, on
TV or even in our own homes, food has seemed to dominate. Can my
noble friend the Minister tell me whether anybody or any group in
food production can assist those who, for whatever reason, seem
unable to provide food for their own table?
(Con)
As I said earlier, food banks are doing a magnificent job at the
moment in these very difficult times. Defra is continuing to work
with food retailers and producers to explore a range of measures
that they can take to ensure the availability of affordable
food—for example, by maintaining value ranges, price matching and
price-freezing measures. It might be worth pointing out—some
noble Lords will know this from going into supermarkets—that
Asda, for example, has launched a scheme called Just Essentials,
which gives customers access to a much larger range of
good-quality products at the lowest prices, and Morrisons has a Help
for Households scheme. Supermarkets are doing their very best to
step in and lower their prices for those who are most vulnerable.