Debate about the increased use of foodbanks over the past few years with explanations ranging from increased supply, welfare reform to rising food prices. One of the reasons End Hunger UK argue for government to measure hunger is to help us better understand those causes. Increasingly there is a strong evidence base collected by many leading food bank providers and poverty charities. Here, Child Poverty Action Group’s Moussa Haddad looks at how evidence in one particular area – the link between benefit sanctions, and food bank use – has developed over the past few years.

 

Under the coalition government (2010-15), there were significant changes in sanctions policy. On the one hand, the conditions claimants were asked to meet became tougher. November’s National Audit Office report indicates that, in January 2012, the DWP increased expectations for ‘actively seeking work’. Statistics for numbers of sanctions issued as a proportion of JSA and ESA claimants show a substantial increase during those years, the proportion subsequently falling back to its pre-2010 levels under the current government. Read more here