A charity is calling for benefit payments to cover the true cost of living after a report revealed people at food banks have an average weekly income of £50 after paying rent.

The Trussell Trust, a food bank charity, commissioned the State of Hunger 2019 report, which was conducted by Heriot-Watt University.

It found that over 94% of people at food banks are destitute, while three-quarters live in households affected by ill-health or disability.

Meanwhile, the average weekly income of people at food banks is only £50 after paying rent, and almost one in five have no money coming in at all in the month before being referred for emergency food.

The report identified three reasons: issues with the benefits system, ill health and challenging life experiences, and a lack of local support.


Two-thirds of people at food banks were affected by problems with benefits in the last year.

The key issues include a reduction in the value of benefit payments, being turned down for disability benefits, having benefits stopped, and delays in payments such as the five-week wait for universal credit.

Experts have estimated that a £1 increase in the weekly value of main benefits could lead to 84 fewer food parcels a year in a typical local authority.

As a result, the Trussell Trust is calling for three key changes as a priority to protect people from hunger:

End the five-week wait for universal credit

Benefit payments must cover the true cost of living

Funding for councils to provide local crisis support should be ring-fenced and increased

Chief executive Emma Revie said: "People are being locked into extreme poverty and pushed to the doors of food banks.

"Hunger in the UK isn't about food - it's about people not having enough money. People are trying to get by on £50 a week and that's just not enough for the essentials, let alone a decent standard of living."

She added: "Many of us are being left without enough money to cover the most basic costs. We cannot let this continue in our country.

"This can change - our benefits system could be the key to unlocking people from poverty if our government steps up and makes the changes needed. How we treat each other when life is hard speaks volumes about us as a nation. We can do better than this."

The majority of people referred to food banks also experienced a challenging life event, such as an eviction or household breakdown, in the year prior to using the food bank.

Such events may increase living costs and make it more difficult to maintain paid work or to successfully claim benefits.

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The report found that particular groups of people are more likely to need a food bank. For example, single parents make up 22% of people at food banks, the majority of whom are women.

Almost three-quarters of people at food banks have a health issue or live with someone who does.

More than half of people at food banks live in households affected by a mental health problem, with anxiety and depression the most common.

A quarter of people live in households where someone has a long-term physical condition. One in six has a physical disability and one in 10 has a learning disability, or live with someone who does.

Ill health often increases living costs and may be a barrier to doing paid work.

One woman who was referred to a food bank, Amanda, explained to researchers that £130 of her £138 fortnightly benefit payment for a health condition goes to paying arrears, leaving her with only £8.

She said: "If I don't pay my bills, then I'll get the house taken off me. After paying arrears, I've got £8 a fortnight and that's to pay for gas, electric, water.

"So it's just impossible, it really is. I go to bed at night wishing I never wake up in the morning."

The study also found that the vast majority of people at food banks have either exhausted support from family and friends, are socially isolated, or have family and friends who are not in a financial position to help.

The Trussell Trust said "destitution" is when someone cannot afford to buy the "absolute essentials that we all need to eat, stay warm and dry, and keep clean".

The charity also defines "hunger" as "household food insecurity" - which refers to the social and economic problem of lack of food due to resource.

This means the person experiencing hunger may go without meals and not able to afford a nutritionally adequate diet, and feel insecure about where the next meal is going to come from.

Responding to a Trussell Trust report, which calls for local crisis support funding for councils to be ring-fenced and increased, chair of the Local Government Association's resources board, Cllr Richard Watts, said: "The next government needs to commit to restore funding to councils for local welfare assistance schemes and increase the local housing allowance, enabling councils to support tenants at risk of homelessness in the short-term and providing the local safety net needed to help those struggling to cope with welfare reforms, including the roll out of universal credit."

A DWP spokesperson said: "We take this report very seriously and continue to work closely with the Trussell Trust on this important issue.

"We already spend over £95bn a year on welfare, and have simplified the benefits system through Universal Credit - making it easier for people to access support.

"This week, we also announced working-age benefits will rise in line with inflation from April, giving millions of people more money in their pockets.

"But we are not complacent, and continue to make improvements to the benefits system to make sure people get all the support they need."