By Sophie Padgett, Network Policy & Research Officer at Trussell
Trussell’s vision is for a UK without the need for food banks and we are working hard to ensure that Labour’s manifesto promise of ending the ‘mass dependence on emergency food parcels’ is turned into reality.
To do this, we need to fully understand the need for emergency food and the most effective levers to tackle the problem.
Understanding the need for emergency food needs a more meaningful measure
In our latest research project, The Cost of Hunger and Hardship, we have been able to go beyond emergency food parcel data and destitution measures to understand the need for emergency food more fully. The project focuses on a measure that goes much further in capturing both people who are likely to need to turn to a food bank now, and people at high risk of needing food bank support in the future. We’ll only see a significant reduction in the need for emergency food when people’s financial resources are increased to the point that events like a job loss or an unexpected bill don’t push them into a position where they need to use a food bank. We call this our measure of ‘hunger and hardship’. A family faces hunger and hardship if they are more than 25% below the Social Metrics Commission poverty line.
1 in 7 people in the UK face hunger and hardship, including 3 million children, and numbers are set to rise without urgent action
In October 2024, Trussell published its interim report for this research showing that a record 9.3 million people in the UK are facing hunger and hardship.
Shockingly, 46% more children are facing hunger and hardship than two decades ago. That equates to 1 in 5 children growing up trapped in this situation. Some groups across society are bearing the burden more than most:
- More than half (53%) of people facing hunger and hardship live in a disabled family
- One in three (32%) people in single parent families face hunger and hardship
- Children aged 0-4 face the highest risk of hunger and hardship of any age group (24%)
- Over a quarter (28%) of people living in Black, African, Caribbean and Black British families face hunger and hardship.
Without urgent action from all levels of government these numbers are set to increase with an additional 425,000 people expected to be facing hunger and hardship by 2026/27, 40% of whom will be children.
There are solutions available which could mean millions fewer people face hunger and hardship
The report also assesses the impact of a range of policy options on the number of people facing hunger and hardship. The policy levers with by far the biggest impact involve making our social security system fit for purpose.
Embedding an Essentials Guarantee into Universal Credit would have the greatest impact on lifting people out of hardship. If the UK government were to implement this, it would ensure 1.9 million fewer people would be at risk of hunger and hardship in 2025/26, including 580,000 children and 1.2 million people living in families where at least one person is disabled. This policy would mean a reduction of a fifth in the number of people who are expected to face hunger and hardship.
Measures to increase support for children would also have a significant impact on levels of hunger and hardship across the UK. Removing the two-child limit and benefit cap would mean 825,000 fewer people would be facing hunger and hardship by 2025/26, including 570,000 fewer children.
What’s next for the project
Our final report for this project, due in April 2025, will continue to set out the case for action. Most importantly, it will take an in-depth look at the cost of hunger and hardship to individuals, the economy, and public services such as the NHS. We will bring together in-depth participatory research alongside people with lived experience of hunger and hardship to understand the human cost, with further economic modelling to help understand the associated costs of hunger and hardship to the public purse. As an organisation, we’ve long been making the moral case for reducing the need for emergency food, knowing the British public agrees. This fresh analysis will help us to put forward the compelling economic argument for reducing levels of hunger and hardship in the UK and show once and for all that failing to take more significant steps to address hunger and hardship has a cost not just to individuals, but to us all.
The Trussell research team would like to thank all those who have made this ambitious project possible, WPI Economics, HumanKind Research and all the people who have taken part in this research and shared their experiences.
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This article is featured in our 5 March newsletter.
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