A recently formed foodbank – jointly run by Hounslow Council – have rules stating they will not help people with ‘chaotic’ lifestyles or those who have had benefits sanctioned.

UPDATE: The foodbank have issued a response to this post which sadly fails to even address the policy not to give food to those who have had benefits sanctioned. It can be read at: http://hounslowfoodbox.org.uk/news/response-to-blog-critics/

Hounslow Community Foodbox was established as a partnership between local tenants and residents groups and Hounslow Council, and is chaired by Labour Party Councillor Steve Curran.

The foodbank claims to have been formed to help those condemned to poverty due to the vicious welfare reforms, but it seems those who have had benefits stopped completely will not be eligible for support.

Hundreds of thousands of benefit sanctions are currently being handed out every month with Jobcentre staff believed to be working to unofficial targets to stop as many claims as possible. Claimants can be sanctioned for something as simple as missing a meeting, being unable to attend workfare or in many cases not fully understanding the endlessly complex and draconian Jobseeking Activity conditions.

Unfortunately these claimants, who in some cases may be left without any income at all, will be left to go hungry by Hounslow Community Foodbox. The organisation also warns that they will not provide help to ” persons who are in constant difficulties due to chaotic lifestyles” stating that:

“FoodBox vouchers are for those who find themselves in a financial crisis which leaves them with insufficient means to buy food.

A crisis by its nature involves a change in circumstances, not a continuing lifestyle.”

This nasty policy reveals the danger of a welfare system based on charity and the accompanying Victorian values of a deserving and undeserving poor which leave the most marginalised abandoned.

It is impossible to know whether this policy began with the Hounslow Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations who seemed to initiate the project, or whether it came from the Labour Council who jumped on the bandwagon. It is also unknown how many foodbanks have similar judgemental policies.

It is a fucking disgrace that anyone should have to queue up at a foodbank for a few scraps of processed shite in one of the richest cities in the world. That those people should then be subject to moral judgement about their lifestyles or the reasons for their poverty is contemptible.

Foodbanks are currently collecting at supermarkets around the UK as the opportunist big stores are encouraging shoppers to buy food from them to give to the hungry. Those foodbanks who say they will not help people who have had benefits sanctioned should be shunned themselves by decent people everywhere.

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