Food banks

I wonder what the definition of poverty was/is.

Tories have or are going to change it. Almost certainly because the current definition would show them in poor light.

I presume the figures were from this report which also states:
Labour's record on poverty and inequality

Labour had very clear objectives to reduce poverty amongst families with children and pensioners, and accorded these objectives high priority. Tony Blair made a famous commitment to end child poverty within a generation, and Gordon Brown promised to ‘to end pensioner poverty in our country”. However, it is much less clear that Labour took a strong view on the appropriate level of inequality within the top half of the income distribution, as indicated for example by Peter Mandelson’s famous statement that he was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich as long as they pay their taxes.'

With falls in income poverty, one might expect to have seen a fall in income inequality. Indeed inequality did fall across much of the distribution. Those on relatively low incomes did a little better than those with incomes just above the average. However, those right at the top saw their incomes increase very substantially with the result that, on most measures, overall inequality nudged up slightly

DJ I'm not sure that tax credits is a way of distributing from the rich to the poor - just like its predecessor, income support, I always thought of it as tax payers subsidising low-paying employers.

It's quite wrong to reduce the credits before the counter-weight of increased earnings is in place - employers are not going to suddenly increase wages until legally obliged to do so.

I do agree that it's appalling that the government is trying to make foodbanks part of the system so that in effect, charities are making up for the lack of official support to those in dire need.

25% of pensioners and children. Sorry not to have made that clear.

'Food banks were rarely seen in the UK in the second half of the 20th century, but use started to grow in the 2000s, and have since dramatically expanded.

The rise has been blamed on the 2008 recession as well as the austerity measures implemented afterwards. However, the OECD found that people answering yes to the question ‘Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?’ decreased from 9.8% in 2007 to 8.1% in 2012, leading some to say that the rise was due to both more awareness of food banks, and the government allowing Jobcentres to refer people to food banks when they were hungry (the previous Labour government had not allowed this).'

From Wikipedia - figures from Society at a Glance: 2014 UK OECD Social Indicators

Interesting!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/106068?reveal_response=yes#response-threshold

This is the DWP response to a petition asking for the government to do an impact assessment of all the cuts to disabled.
It's quite a long reply, but the gist is that they do not have the tools to do a full impact assessment.
Like all other ideas that IDS comes up with, he makes the cuts, punishes people, then denies that there is a problem in the first place.

This is why it is only IDS who can come up with the idea of putting jobcentre workers into food banks.
He cannot see the results of his decisions, cannot ask what would happen if....

I think it's such a sad thing that we have to rely on food banks in this day and age but I'm glad that they are there. Funnily I was just discussing similar things with my son before coming on here and he was saying during his working day as a delivery driver whilst making a delivery to John Lewis he pulled up next to a skip where a man was filling his bag with the waste food that is heartbreaking .

www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/22242

An interesting article about why there should not be jobcentre staff in foodbanks and why IDS wants them.

I hadn't realised before but when Universal Credit is rolled out completely, there is a five week gap built into the system, between signing on and getting your first benefit money.

This is why food baqnks have grown so much.
Over the last five years there have been over 279,000 people sanctioned without being informed why.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/13928559.Destitute_and_penniless___no_warning__benefit_sanctions_imposed_in_nearly_300_000_cases/?ref=twtrec

That's over a thousand a week. Caring Tories?

Suppose food bank sounds less distressing than soup kitchen but same thing , food given to the hungry and poor

Food banks are not soup kitchens, although a soup kitchen may sometimes be run from the same premises.

Food banks provide food parcels, soup kitchens provide a hot meal.

Isn't that rather nit-picking Anna?

The principle is the same ... providing food for those in need.

No - must you always accuse me of nit-picking, Riverwalk?

Anniebach has mentioned the stigma attached to the soup kitchens of old before in connection with present day food banks. It wasn't clear whether she was aware that soup kitchens are still being run in this country, alongside food banks.

So cold food to take away cannot be compared with hot food eaten on the premises, reminds one of Osbourns pasty tax.

Free food given to the poor , hot or cold - no difference ,

You're obviously determined to ignore the fact that a) the first food banks were introduced in the UK when Labour was in power and b) every other country in Europe and most of the rest of the world has them.

I know that isn't right that they are necessary, but constantly blaming the Tory government for everything that's wrong everywhere and anywhere is ridiculous.

I think everyone knows that soup kitchens serve hot food and food banks provide food to be taken home - no need for an explanation needed I would have thought for the vast majority on GN.

So yes, IMO it was nit-picking - otherwise why the need to point out the difference?

Why not? I'm pretty sure not everyone on GN knows that soup kitchens are still operating in most cities, as the only threads about providing food for those who need it have related to food banks.

I'll leave you to your grumblings (for the time being, that is, in case I get a 'hurray!' from anyone...)

I suspect that soup kitchens, like Sikh kitchens welcome everyone who comes and do not limit the number of times they come. On the other hand food banks are only for those who have the correct chittie and the number of visits are very limited. I think it is two buy it was a long time ago that I read it. Therefore I think there is a huge difference and it is not nit-picking.

I see nothing wrong with the DWP or anyone else going into food banks to try to sort out the issues which brought people there. Help is help, wherever it comes from and unless you have used food banks yourself you cannot know how the people feel.

I work in a food bank and know how many who use them feel, I also know people who need them but refuse to go near because they say they remember what their parents and grandparents felt of the shame of having to go to soup kitchens . How many meals allowed or if the food is hot or cold is nit picking, it's free food for those who cannot afford to buy food

I disagree AB

And I disagree with you Nonnie

To my mind a soup kitchen is hot meals at that moment for whoever needs it, and they are usually, but not always, used by people who live on the streets or have chaotic lives. Food banks are only for those referred to them by GP, SS or DWP and provide food items based on the family size, usually a week's worth I believe, and it is food to be taken home and cooked by the recipients. Soup kitchen exist where I live, run by a church, and their clients are the homeless, not families. Not nit picking, just saying it as I believe it to be and still shameful that they have to exist.

Free food given to the poor , hot or cold - no difference
There is a difference, though. A soup kitchen would provide a hot meal and company, whereas Trussell Trust foodbanks provide a minimum of three days emergency food and support to people experiencing crisis in the UK. enabling people to make meals for themselves.

In some countries such as Great Britain, increased demand from hungry people has largely been met by food banks, operating on the "front line" model, where they give food out directly to the hungry. Instead of providing hot meals, front line food banks and pantries hand out packages of groceries so that recipients can cook themselves several meals at home. This is often more convenient for the end user. They can receive food for up to a dozen or so meals at once, whereas with a soup kitchen, they typically only receive a single meal with each visit. Food banks typically have procedures needed to prevent unscrupulous people taking advantage of them, unlike soup kitchens which will usually give a meal to whomever turns up with no questions asked. The soup kitchen's greater accessibility can make it more suitable for assisting people with long-term dependence on food aid. Soup kitchens can also provide warmth, companionship and the shared communal experience of dining with others, which can be especially valued by people such as widowers or the homeless. In some countries such as Greece, soup kitchens have become the most widely used form of food aid, with The Guardian reporting in 2012 that an estimated 400,000 Greeks visit a soup kitchen each day

But I am sure you all knew that anyway.