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Emma Revie, Chief Executive of the Trussell Trust, said:

“This winter has been incredibly challenging for people on the lowest incomes, and for many it has deepened the hardship they have already been facing for some time. The Trussell Trust welcomes some of the significant interventions announced by the Chancellor today that will provide some additional support to people on the lowest incomes. (more…)

We’re excited to announce our new partnership with Clarion Futures, the charitable foundation of Clarion Housing Group which is the UK’s largest provider of affordable housing.

Clarion staff have been able to refer residents to food banks for some time, but this new approach enables Clarion Futures staff to issue electronic vouchers, streamlining the referral process and enabling people in crisis to receive emergency food more quickly from food banks in the Trussell Trust network. (more…)

We’re being asked lots of questions about the possible impact of coronavirus on people needing food banks, and the support food banks will be able to provide.

This is an unprecedented challenge, and we don’t yet know how things will unfold. We’re working with our network on how best to support people, and wherever possible, food banks will continue to provide the lifeline of emergency food. (more…)

A key part of the Fight Hunger Create Change partnership between Asda, the Trussell Trust and FareShare is a grants programme for food banks in our network, providing crucial additional resources to increase the breath of services they can offer people to help prevent someone needing a food bank again in the future.

A year on from using their grant funding to establish a counselling service, Gateway Trust Counselling, Ribble Valley Foodbank manager Jane Chitnis and volunteer and trained counsellor Ali Groves, who set up the initiative, explain the difference it’s made…

Jane: We’re trying to offer a holistic approach to people coming through our doors so that the positive benefits are felt by all beyond food.  We know so many people we meet at our food bank are affected by mental health issues.

Ali, a past food bank volunteer and trained counsellor, immediately saw the need for a counselling service. There are so many people we signpost to different services and she knows all too well how long it can take to access counselling through the NHS. Due to pressure and demand the limited session provision can take longer than six months to become available.

Ali heads up a team with four volunteer counsellors. People seeking counselling are offered appointments on a weekly or fortnightly basis. People are counselled whether or not they can afford a donation and the service is often fully booked. People can self-refer, or be referred by the food bank signposters.

There’s a huge need for this kind of initiative and we have felt immediate benefits within the community.

Volunteers feel more confident knowing they can offer someone a free counselling service because of the Asda grant funding, rather than simply signposting them on elsewhere. There are many practical ways you can help people, but this kind of therapy is at the heart of helping to equip people to move forward in their lives.

Ali: We’re able to offer people a tailored counselling service and I think that makes a massive difference. We’re able to really come alongside someone, for however long they need.

We’ve worked with 50 people in the past year – while some people only need three sessions and then something clicks and they know what they want to do, some people have more complex issues to work through, and we might be working together for something closer to 40 sessions.

Here are some testimonials from people who have completed therapy with us:

“I’ve never felt so heard and understood by a therapist before and the lasting effects of my time with Gateway have been amazing. I now have the understanding and the tools to effectively navigate negative situations that arise.”

• A young mum

“I just thought you’d like to know that because of my counselling I have grown in confidence. This has meant that my boss hasn’t once shouted at me since and he treats me like all the other workers. So thank you for helping me.”

• Male, 20

The flexibility we offer means we can fit with what people need. We have been working with someone at the moment who’s waited six months for eight sessions of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy through the NHS. We’re able to bridge that gap while he’s waiting, and after he’s had his allocated sessions with the team at the NHS, he knows if there’s anything he wants to pick back up with us then we’re here.

I can demonstrate the difference we’re making really clearly because of a series of questions we use with our clients to assess their mental health which create a score – when the client who is now receiving CBT first came in, his score was really high at 33, but now it’s halved and dropped to 16. We often see people’s scores really dropping in this way, hopefully it means we’ve paved the way and all the work he’s done with us means the CBT he’ll get at the NHS will really help.

But I think one of the things that shows most clearly the difference that’s being made in our community are the things we hear from people we’ve worked with. So I want to end with this lovely message from a widow with two young children, who we’ve worked with closely throughout the year:

“I can’t thank you enough for walking through this last year with me. Your genuine faith and care have helped me through what could have been a totally overwhelming time.”

Garry Lemon, Director of Policy, External Affairs, and Research

Universal Credit is at a crossroads. And it is in the upcoming Budget that we will get a better idea of what sort of a social security safety net our country will have in the future. The stakes could not be higher.

The new benefit has rarely been far from the front pages in recent days, and with good reason. The admission from the Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey that some households would indeed be much worse off under the new system has caused growing disquiet, and added to calls for reform or even scrapping of the system.

Here at The Trussell Trust we have long been warning that Universal Credit is not providing the support it should be, particularly for the people who need it the most – families with children and people with disabilities or illness.

Foodbanks in The Trussell Trust network have on average seen a surge in demand where Universal Credit has rolled out, and the evidence on the link between foodbank referrals and moving onto Universal Credit is growing stronger. A survey of people referred to foodbanks who were meant to be supported by the new benefit revealed the immediate and severe consequences of the five-week wait for payment. People told us of a lack of support, the inability of payments to cover the cost of living for people who most need it, and at times woefully poor administration leaving people penniless and destitute.

This, of course, is not how things were supposed to go. Universal Credit was supposed to support people into work, make work pay, simplify the system, and reduce error.

Whether the new system could have come close to this vision we do not know, as successive cuts have drastically reduced the generosity of the benefit – particularly for families with children and disabled people.  That’s why the health, wellbeing and dignity of millions of households now and in the future will depend on the Treasury reinvesting in Universal Credit so that it supports everyone that needs it.

With hints in the press that the Chancellor is reconsidering some of these decisions, we are calling for investment in Universal Credit, first to put the money taken out of the system back in, and second to fund proper support for people moving onto the system.

Families and disabled people have borne the brunt of cuts to Universal Credit. We want working families to keep more of what they earn by restoring the work allowance, and for Child Tax Credits and the Child Element of Universal Credit to be uprated in line with inflation. We are also calling for a reversal to the cut to the ESA ‘work related activity group’ and UC ‘limited capacity for work’ element from £102.15 to £73.10, reflecting the additional inescapable costs of living with a disability.

More support is needed for people moving onto the new system. For disabled people who move onto Universal Credit, we want to see a minimum two-week Employment and Support Allowance run on before the first payment, to ease the burden of the five-week wait. And while the announcement that Citizens Advice will lead on delivering Universal Support is a welcome step, more funding is urgently needed to ensure people can get the advice they need when moving over. This is even more urgent as the next stage of Universal Credit begins in 2019.

Across the UK, thousands of volunteers and donors have done an extraordinary job in the face of the challenges thrown up by Universal Credit, providing not just food, but links to vital services; a cup of tea and non-judgemental human interaction in a time of deeply distressing crisis in people’s lives.

But however dignified the service our volunteers provide, it is no substitute for the dignity of having enough money in your pocket to put food on the table for you and your family. To be able to afford bus fare. Toiletries. Sanitary products. Nappies for your baby. Winter clothes. A warm space for your child to do their homework.

With the right investment, the Government has an opportunity in the Budget to ensure Universal Credit works better, and moves us closer to a future where nobody in financial crisis is referred to a foodbank again.

This morning David Gauke, Secretary of State for the Department for Work & Pensions, announced the Universal Credit helpline will be free by the end of the month, and all DWP helplines will be free by end of the year.

Here’s our response:

“Since our Early Warnings report in April, The Trussell Trust has consistently highlighted the impact of the cost of the Universal Credit helpline – a foodbank in our network even reported they had installed new phones in their centre because people referred to them couldn’t afford to call the helpline from home.

“We therefore welcome David Gauke’s announcement today that there will be no charge for calling this helpline by the end of this month, and for all DWP helplines by the end of the year. This is a sensible first step in starting to address some of the issues with Universal Credit seen by Trussell Trust foodbanks, but their experience tells us that there are other significant barriers that still need to be addressed to prevent people affected by Universal Credit issues from needing a foodbank.”

Garry Lemon, Head of Media & External Affairs

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Staff at EsriUK in Aylesbury are supporting Aylesbury Foodbank by challenging themselves to live on £1 a day for food and drink for 5 consecutive days between 9^th and 19^th January.

They will donate the money they would have spent on food and drink to the foodbank and EsriUK have generously offered to match fund whatever they raise.

Some members of staff have decided just to donate their weekly food budget and EsriUK will be match funding that as well.

“Esri UK staff were keen to do something to help people in need in the local community and to raise awareness. When I found out about the ‘Live below the line’ challenge it seemed a great way to raise funds for Aylesbury Foodbank and to help local people”

said Ben Flanagan, Esri UK.

Heather-Joy Garrett, Aylesbury Foodbank Co-ordinator said:

‘We’re thrilled that the staff at EsriUK have chosen to support us in this way – living on a £1 a day for all food and drink isn’t an easy thing to do. As all our food is donated (with collection points at Waitrose and Holy Trinity Church’ all the money they raise will go towards supporting our running costs this year’.

EsriUK staff already support the foodbank by packing boxes after work one evening a fortnight.

Could you live on £1 a day? Challenge your company or friends to try.

Aylesbury foodbank has helped over 250 households by supplying a three-day food parcel since it opened in April 2016. Aylesbury foodbank is part of the Trussell Trust national network of foodbanks. It was set up and will be supported for 3 years by the Mid Bucks Association, a local Christian trust (Registered Charity No 212634)

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Tackling poverty and hunger in London will be a pressing challenge for whoever is elected on 5 May.  Latest figures published by The Trussell Trust show a 5 per cent rise in foodbank use in the capital, with 110,000 three-day emergency food supplies given to people in crisis in the last year. Increasingly food banks are providing additional services that help people break out of crisis faster, and reduce the need for repeat referrals.  As one visitor to a food bank said:

“You’re only two missed pay checks away from being in poverty. Just five minutes to breathe can really make all the difference, that’s why food banks are such a lifeline.”

(more…)