Trussell Trust’s campaign to end the five week wait for Universal Credit

New statistics show food banks in the Trussell Trust network gave a record 1.6 million food parcels to people in the past year. And 594 of these were given by the Hunstanton & District Foodbank.

These figures represent a 73% rise in just five years.

Locally James Monro, from the Hunstanton and District Foodbank that works under the Trussell Trust umbrella, prepared figures for Foodbank parcels given from 2015 to 2019 and the numbers are staggering.

44 children and 84 adults had three-day food parcels from the Hunstanton and District Foodbank in 2015. Compare this to the 252 children and 342 adults with the same three-day parcels in the past year.

James Monro reports: “ The need for help continues to increase, and the advent of Universal Credit is increasingly cited as the cause of need.”

The Trussell Trust has launched a campaign with the hashtag 5WEEKSTOOLONG and they say: “Our benefits system is supposed to protect us all from being swept into poverty. But the main reasons for people needing emergency food are benefits not covering the cost of living and delays or changes to benefits being paid.

“Ending the five week wait should be the Government’s first priority to help create a future without food banks.”

Join the #5WeeksToo long campaign and help make that happen.