Three in four food bank users go hungry multiple times a year, report warns

'Shocking' findings prompt warnings severe food insecurity in Britain is a 'public health issue'

Nearly four in five households accessing food banks are severely food insecure (Getty)

The majority of food bank users in the UK are going hungry multiple times a year, sometimes skipping meals for days at a time, an alarming report has revealed.

Nearly four in five households accessing food banks are severely food insecure, meaning they had skipped meals and gone without eating in the past year, according to the single biggest nationwide study on food bank use to date.

The study, carried out by Oxford University and commissioned by the Trussell Trust, which runs a network of over 420 food banks in the UK, reveals that people are experiencing multiple forms of destitution, with more than half of food bank users unable to afford heating or toiletries during the past year. One in five had slept rough in the past 12 months, and nearly eight in 10 (78 per cent) of households were severely — and often chronically — food insecure.

The findings also expose an alarming rate of illness and disability in food bank using household, prompting warnings from experts that food insecurity in the UK has become a “serious public health concern”.

More than half of households included a disabled person and three-quarters experienced ill health in their household, and mental health conditions affect people in a third of households affected, the findings show.

The report also reveal that almost all food bank users surveyed had seen a drop in income, unsteady incomes or an unexpected expense or rise in expenses in the past three months, reporting that their incomes were unsteady from week to week and month to month.

Three in five had recently experienced rising or unexpected expenses, with a quarter of these saying higher food expenses were to blame – confirming the impact of food inflation on squeezed budgets.

More than a quarter (28 per cent) of those who had experienced rising expenses said this was due to housing costs, such as rent or energy, going up, with tenants in private housing were more likely to find it difficult to keep up with rents than socially rented properties.

One in three households were also finding it difficult to make minimum monthly repayments on outstanding loans, and nearly one in five in debt owed money to payday lenders.

David McAuley, Chief Executive of The Trussell Trust, urged the Government to do more to prevent people from having to turn to food banks in the first place, finding particular concern in the high numbers of disabled people and people with mental health problems using food banks.

“This pioneering research confirms to us what those volunteers have been telling us: every day they are meeting people trying to cope with low, insecure incomes and rising prices that mean even the smallest unexpected expense can leave them destitute and hungry – be that an unexpected bill, bereavement or the loss of income caused by benefit delay,” he said.

“Particularly concerning are the very high numbers of disabled people or people with mental health problems needing food banks. These findings reaffirm how vital the work of food banks and generosity of donors is, but are also a clear challenge to the new Government to do more to stop people ending up in crisis in the first place.”

Mr McAuley called for a renewed commitment to halving the disability employment gap through a work, dsability, and health bill, and for this commitment to include a review into the financial support provided for people who are in the "work-related activity group" on Employment Support Allowance. Making work more secure and tackling the high cost of living would also have a significant impact on the lives of people in extreme poverty, he added.

Dr Rachel Loopstra, the lead author of the report, lecturer in Nutrition at King’s College London and associate member of the University of Oxford’s sociology department, warned that the “severity and chronicity” of food insecurity security in the UK is a “serious public health concern”.

“The stories emerging from food banks across the country have surprised and shocked many people but until now, we have not been able to put them in a numerical context,” she said.

“Our survey data show how people using food banks are unable to ensure they always have enough food to eat because their incomes are too low and too insecure. But these shocks, and resulting food bank usage, occur among people who live with extremely low incomes and chronic food insecurity, where meeting basic needs is an ongoing struggle. The severity and chronicity of food insecurity and other forms of destitution we observed amongst people using food banks are serious public health concerns.”

Last month it emerged that hundreds of “hidden” food banks were operating in the UK, showing that at least 651 are grassroots organisations operating independently of the Trussell Trust, and thus indicating that the true scale of food poverty is higher than previously thought.

The Trussell network revealed in April that the number of people accessing their service had risen by seven per cent in the last year, with the charity providing 1,182,954 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis between April 2016 and March 2017, compared with 1,109,309 the previous year.

Responding to the findings, a government spokesperson said: “We’re helping millions of households meet the everyday cost of living and keep more of what they earn while also spending over £90bn a year in extra support for those who need it.

"Employment is the best route out of poverty, and with record numbers of people – including disabled people – now in work, we’ve made great progress. But we want to go even further to help ordinary families. That’s why we’ve doubled free childcare, introduced Universal Credit and increased the National Living Wage and tax free Personal Allowance to make sure it always pays to be in work.”