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Theresa May 'turning a blind eye' to the surge in food bank use
REUTERS/Mary Turner
The government does not collect data on how many people use food banks.
SNP attacks "cruel and callous" Conservative government after FOI reveals the Department for Work and Pensions does not keep track of food bank usage.
LONDON — Theresa May's government has been accused of "turning a blind-eye" to soaring food bank usage in the UK after a freedom of information request revealed it does not collect data on how many people are using them.
The Scottish National Party branded the Conservative government "cruel and callous" after it learnt that the Department for Work and Pensions has not been collecting data on how many Brits have been using food banks.
"This is shameful from the DWP – the fact that they are simply turning a blind-eye to food bank use is very hard to take," the SNP MSP Clare Adamson said in a statement.
"But groups such as the Trussell Trust do collect data on food bank use, and the numbers are heart-breaking – with well over 1 million people relying on emergency food parcels last year, and even more this year."
The Trussell Trust's most recent research suggests that 1,182,954 people received three-day emergency food supplies in 2016-17, including 436,938 children. This is more than twenty times higher than when the Tories were elected to office in 2010.
"The blame for this national scandal lies solely with the Tory party – with welfare delays and cuts responsible for over 42% of referrals, and the rollout of Universal Credit sending even more families into hardship," Adamson added.
"Yet the Tories just ignore the harrowing detail and plough on with their austerity agenda that is completely responsible for the shameful figures on food bank use in the UK in the 21st century."
Prime Minister May was earlier this year accused of failing to recognise the scale of food bank usage in the UK after telling the BBC's Andrew Marr that there were "many complex reasons" why nurses were using them.
"There are many complex reasons why people go to food banks and I want to create an economy where we have a strong economy where we pay for public services that we need but we are also creating secure jobs," the PM said.
In September Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg was criticised after describing increased food bank usage as "rather uplifting" in an interview with LBC radio.
"It [the state] provides a basic level of welfare... but on some occasions that will not work and to have charitable support given by people voluntarily to support their fellow citizens I think is rather uplifting and shows what a good compassionate country we are," he said.
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