More than 9 million people in the UK are experiencing levels of poverty and hunger so severe they are vulnerable to relying on charity food handouts, according to a report by the Trussell charity. This represents one in seven of the population, with 1 million more people in what Trussell defines as 'hunger and hardship' – living on income at least 25% below the relative poverty line – than five years ago, and nearly 3 million more than two decades ago.
The study found that rapid growth in deep poverty, where households regularly struggle to afford food, heating, clothing and other basics, has driven food bank use to record levels. Trussell's chief executive, Emma Revie, said: 'It's 2024 and we're facing historically high levels of food bank need. As a society, we cannot allow this to continue. We must not let food banks become the new norm.'
Children are at high risk, with a fifth of all UK youngsters falling into this category, and a third of larger families with three or more children also at high risk. Trussell stopped short of calling for the immediate abolition of the two-child benefit limit, despite its impact on larger families, as the majority of those facing hunger would not benefit from that change alone, according to the charity's director of policy, Helen Barnard.
The report highlights that most people facing hunger and hardship (58%) are in households where at least one person is working, and nearly four in ten people claiming universal credit are in this category. Trussell calls for protecting incomes of 2.2 million people whose universal credit is reduced by deductions for historic loans, and for introducing a legal minimum income floor on the standard allowance. It also urges uprating housing benefit in line with rents and protecting disability benefits.
Labour's 2024 election manifesto promised to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels, calling it a 'moral scar'. A government spokesperson said: 'No child should be in poverty. This government is taking action through...' The Treasury is expected to resist pressure to abolish the two-child limit in the short term, citing the £3bn cost as unaffordable given competing demands.
