Massive rise in people relying on food banks

HUNDREDS more desperate people are going to Derby's biggest food bank for handouts as Government benefits cuts begin to bite.

In the space of a year, the number of food packages handed out by The Hope Centre has increased 13-fold.

And stocks ran so low in June that the centre almost had to shut its food bank in the face of the huge demand.

From April to June this year, 684 food packages were handed out by the Curzon Street centre – up from just 51 in the same period the year before.

Paul Brookhouse, from the centre, said reasons for the upsurge include benefits changes, such as the so-called bedroom tax, along with the economic downturn, and increasing problems with high interest pay-day loans.

Mr Brookhouse said: "The people in Government sit in their ivory towers and I don't think they understand what's going on in inner-city communities.

"When things are tough for someone there is an assumption they can do x, y and z and everything will be sorted but it doesn't work out that way."

The biggest recent leap in handouts was from March, where 40 to 50 food packages were given out a week, to April, when there were 80.

Mr Brookhouse, community development officer at the centre, said this was down to two benefits changes made by the Government.

One was the so-called bedroom tax, introduced on April 1, where people lose part of their housing benefit if they are living in social housing with spare rooms.

The other was tougher sanctions for benefits claimants who do not follow the Government's rules aimed at ensuring people are genuinely looking for a job.

Previously, someone could have had their jobseeker's benefit stopped for between a week and six months.

A new regime came in which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said was "clearer and more robust" where sanctions could run from between four weeks to three years.

The change, the DWP said, came in on October 22 last year, but Mr Brookhouse said there was an increase in the number of people affected around March time.

Mr Brookhouse said of the so-called bedroom tax: "The problem we have in Derby is that there are not enough smaller properties for people to move into and that one extra cost pushes people over the edge."

Mr Brookhouse recalled how one carer who came for a food package had burst into tears over the issue.

He said: "The pressure of being a carer was enough but that extra financial pressure tipped her over."

He said many people who came in had also been caught out by high-interest loans, both legal and illegal.

Mr Brookhouse said there was a misconception that people who came to the Hope Centre were either immigrants or people that "couldn't be bothered to get a job".

He said: "The majority of people that come are between the ages of 16 and 40 but other than that it's a complete mix."

Among those who went to pick up food packages last week was David Styles, 38, a former warehouse operative for the University of Cambridge.

He moved to Derby to be with this girlfriend but the relationship broke down and he said she gave him only a couple of days to leave.

He said: "I'd been out of work for six months prior to that but couldn't find anything. Because of the way the economy is at the moment there are more people than there are jobs.

"I had no reason to claim benefits because my partner had a good job so, when I left, I had no money."

Mr Styles is now staying in temporary housing in the city.

He now has a new warehouse job with Marks & Spencers but said that, without the Hope Centre, he would not have eaten until he got his first paycheck.

He said: "Realistically, I'd have been going hungry until the middle of next month. It's vitally important that they are here."

And Philip Gregory, 44, a graduate currently living on the streets, said: "I'd go hungry if it wasn't for the centre because I wouldn't want to beg."

People get referred from agencies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, Connexions, and Derby Homes.

A DWP spokesman said that "people who are in genuine need can apply for hardship payments".