Outrage over suffering of 4 million people as ministers and greedy firms are slammed.
More than four million Britons, including 500,000 children, go hungry due to Government benefit sanctions and corporate greed, a landmark report reveals today.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who has backed the inquiry, said it was “shocking” that people are being forced to rely on foodbanks.
The report found that families have been driven into poverty by low wages, punitive welfare reforms and money-grabbing companies supplying gas, water, electricity and mobile phone contracts.
Labour MP Frank Field, who led the inquiry, said: “There’s clear evidence that something disturbing is happening. People are near the abyss and the smallest event can tip them over that abyss.”
He added that many people are just “one bill away” from crisis.
The all-party inquiry voiced anger that food suppliers and supermarkets throw away millions of tonnes of food while people go hungry.
And it slammed the Government for rejecting £22million in aid from the European Union to fund foodbanks. The panel has demanded urgent changes, including faster welfare payments and an end to punitive benefit sanctions.
Regulators must stop the poorest being hit by higher utility bills and credit charges, the report added.
The panel also called for a strategy to raise wages for low-paid workers. And it called on the Government to fund a new organisation, called Feeding Britain, to work towards a hunger-free country.
Free school meals should be extended to holiday times, the inquiry added.
The research by MPs, including two Tories, peers and the Church is the most in-depth study on the one million people who turned to foodbanks last year. The report said: “Well over half a million children live in families who cannot afford to feed them properly.”
It was also found that there are at least three and a half million adults who are too poor to eat properly.
Shockingly, in almost half of all families at least one parent skips food in a bid to ensure others have enough to eat.
In a series of devastating findings, the report said the largest cause of people having to go to foodbanks was the Government’s welfare reforms, especially the use of sanctions on benefit claimants.
Iain Duncan Smith’s Department for Work and Pensions was slammed for failing to pay desperate people on time.
The report said: “The problems and uncertainties arising from the delay, interruption or sanctioning of benefit payments were given by almost every foodbank as the most common reason for relying on their services.”
In a damning verdict on the Coalition, the inquiry said the annual average household income is £757 lower than in 2010. And the poorest fifth were the worst hit, losing £814 compared with four years ago.
The report panel said its “anger knows no bounds” that the food industry is throwing away so much edible food which could “eliminate hunger in our society”.
In the past decade Britain has had the highest food inflation of Western nations, with prices rising 47% – compared to 22% in Germany and 16% in France. Since 2003, the UK has also suffered the highest fuel inflation, with electricity, gas and oil prices rising 153%, compared to 58% in France.
The report said: “The poor are penalised for their poverty with a raft of disproportionate charges for basic utilities.
“They pay more for their energy through prepayment meters, are more likely to be charged to withdraw cash from their local machine and often are unable to take advantage of the best mobile phone contracts – meaning they are likely to be one bill from needing to use a foodbank.”
Tory Business Minister Matthew Hancock said the rise in foodbanks was because more people know about them.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “While this report outlines important areas for consideration, we should remember that this country has been through the deepest recession in living memory, and sticking to this Government’s long-term economic plan is the best way to improve living standards.”
The inquiry said a large amount of those having to use foodbanks were in work.
The Most Rev Welby, who launches the report today, said the fact that hunger “still stalks” Britain was more shocking than the poverty in Africa.
Talking about a family he met at a foodbank, he said: “They were ashamed to be there. The dad talked miserably. He said they had each been skipping a day’s meals once a week to have more for the child. But then needed new tyres for the car so they could get to work at night and just could not make ends meet.”
Former Tory Cabinet minister David Mellor said Mr Welby is the “head of a failing organisation”.
Mr Mellor, who had to apologise recently for a foul-mouthed rant at a cabbie, added: “I don’t remember any part of the gospel where people were told to queue up outside Pontius Pilate’s office and tell him to put more money to the poor. I think the Church should be capable of organising that themselves.”
