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Garry Lemon, Director of Policy:

Last week food banks in the Trussell Trust network provided shocking evidence of the impact of the economic storm whipped up by the Coronavirus pandemic. Over the course of April there was a huge surge in people needing support, with double the number of families needing help compared to same time last year. It was the busiest month ever at food banks.

It is clear from this immediate and ongoing surge in need for charity food parcels that though we all face the same storm, we are not all in the same boat. Despite welcome measures to boost Universal Credit and Housing Benefit, a huge number of people are still unable to stay afloat.

This simply isn’t right, and must be addressed immediately by government. To that end, the Trussell Trust is working with a coalition of anti-poverty charities to call for a Coronavirus Emergency Income Support Scheme to  ensure we all have enough money to weather the storm. (more…)

Emma Revie, chief executive

In ‘normal’ times, Ruth* works every hour under the sun in catering for an events company to provide for her family. But in mid-March, before the coronavirus pandemic had reached its peak in the UK, she found herself at a food bank collecting an emergency food parcel.

She was already just getting by from one payslip to the next – but when all the events company’s bookings were cancelled and she lost her shifts, it was impossible to make ends meet.

It isn’t right that Ruth was forced to use a food bank to get by. It isn’t right that anyone in our country is forced to use a food bank to get by. Each one of us deserves the dignity of having enough money to buy the essentials we need for ourselves and our families. (more…)

• The Trussell Trust reports a soaring  89% increase in need for emergency food parcels during April 2020 compared to the same month last year, including a 107% rise in parcels given to children
• The number of families with children receiving parcels has almost doubled compared to the same period last year
• Food banks in the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) report a 175% increase in need for the same period
• A coalition of charities, including Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), The Children’s Society, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), StepChange and Turn2us, is calling for funding for local authorities in England to ensure grants are quickly distributed to help people stay afloat as part of a temporary Coronavirus Emergency Income Support Scheme

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• The Trussell Trust reports a soaring 81% increase for emergency food parcels from food banks in its network during the last two weeks of March 2020, compared to the same period in 2019 – including a 122% rise in parcels given to children, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold¹
• Food banks in the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) report an average 59% increase in need from February to March. That is 17 times higher than this time last year²
• A coalition of charities, including Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), Children’s Society, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), StepChange and Turn2us, is calling for a temporary Coronavirus Emergency Income Support Scheme to ensure people facing financial hardship can access the resources needed to stay afloat

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A blog post by
Garry Lemon
Director of Policy & Research

This is not just a health crisis we face. It is also an economic one. The necessary measures we’re all taking to prevent the spread of coronavirus have caused an economic shock that, early signs show, has led to a steep increase in unemployment and drop in incomes.

In response, and to the government’s great credit, a series of measures have been brought in at significant speed and scale. The Coronavirus Jobs Retention scheme aims to keep companies running and people employed and paid. Universal Credit has been strengthened with more money in the standard rate, alongside an increase in the Local Housing Allowance.

National governments with devolved powers are also bringing in extra protection, most notably £45 million has been put into the Scottish Welfare Fund so that local councils can get money to those that need it most. (more…)

Following donations of more than £20 million last week to help charities fighting the effects of Covid-19, XTX Markets has announced this week they are donating a further £1 million to the Trussell Trust, a charity which supports a network of food banks across the UK.

 Last year, food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network provided 1.6m emergency food parcels to people in crisis. More than half a million of these went to children. The charity has warned more people are likely to need a food bank’s help support as a result of the outbreak – especially those who aren’t eligible for sick pay or have unstable jobs. (more…)

• British Gas engineers and colleagues will be able to support their local area by collecting and delivering food parcels – the company hopes its people will support with 50,000 deliveries a month
• British Gas employees can also volunteer to donate and sort food parcels

British Gas will be working with Trussell Trust by encouraging its people to volunteer with a local food bank. The Trussell Trust is seeing three main challenges impacting food banks as a result of Coronavirus and British Gas will be working with it to address these: (more…)

Our main priority is ensuring the safety of everyone who comes to a food bank – whether it’s someone needing help, someone volunteering their time, or someone making a donation. Following the Prime Minister’s announcement, food banks face a difficult decision about whether they are able to stay open. Each food bank in our network is a local charity, run by a community for their local community, and each will be affected differently – so we’ll be working with each of them to look at what is safe for everyone involved.

Until we are confident that adequate government protection against poverty is in place, food banks provide an essential community service to people unable to afford food. (more…)

Asda donates £5 million to food banks and community charities as well as extending accessible hours for NHS workers and offering additional support to colleagues.  

Asda has announced it will be donating £5 million to its partners FareShare and the Trussell Trust to help the country’s most vulnerable people through COVID-19.

The extensive package of measures will provide over 4 million meals to families in poverty impacted by Coronavirus as well as giving more than 3000 charities the ability to access free food over the next three months as they fight to tackle the impacts of Coronavirus in their communities. (more…)

The Chancellor announced a number of changes to our benefits system in today’s Budget. The full details of these are available here.

The Trussell Trust was encouraged to see the changes focused on protecting people’s incomes – such as the £500m hardship fund for local authorities.

It is also encouraging to see the changes in deductions to Universal Credit, which mean the amounts needing to be paid back will be reduced to 25% of a claimant’s standard allowance, and repayment of advances will take place over 24 months instead of just 12. We would like to see these measures brought forward from their planned start date, October 2021. (more…)