Een
bericht waardoor ik weer eens van m’n stoel flikkerde toen ik het
las: diverse ‘job centres’ van het Department for Work and Pensions
(DWP) in GB weigeren klanten een bewijs te geven waarmee de voedselbank
weet dat deze mensen recht op die hulp hebben (dus geen voedselbonnen
zoals in de VS, maar een systeem dat wij, als ik me niet vergis, ook
hanteren)…..
Volgens
het DWP is haar organisatie niet verantwoordelijk voor deze verwijzingen…….
Lees dit ontluisterende verhaal van kafkaiaanse proporties, een artikel van
Fréa Lockley, gepubliceerd op The Canary en zie waar het
ijskoude inhumane neoliberalisme toe leidt….. Vergeet voorts niet
dat in Groot-Brittannië 4 miljoen kinderen dagelijks met honger naar
school gaan en (als ze geluk hebben) daar eten krijgen….. Het aantal mensen dat afhankelijk is van voedselbanken in GB is vorig jaar met maar liefst 13% gestegen…….
Intussen onder al weer 9 jaar ijskoud en inhumaan neoliberaal Tory bewind, is er zwaar bezuinigd op de subsidie voor organisaties die zich met hulp aan de arme Britten bezighouden en deze mensen kunnen voorzien van een bewijs dat ze voedselhulp nodig hebben. Niet vreemd dus dat deze organisaties ook vanwege de stijging van het aantal te helpen mensen, het werk niet meer aan kunnen……
De regering
weigert de ouders die in diepe armoede zitten te helpen, zodat de kinderen zonder honger naar school kunnen gaan (en deze ouders wel met honger blijven zitten..)…. Het argument daarvoor? Extra geld zouden deze ouders niet aan voedsel
besteden, ofwel ze kunnen doodvallen, 2 vliegen in 1 klap (weg
armoezaaier en geen extra hulp meer nodig…)…. De kinderen krijgen op school te eten en je snapt dat dit voor veel van die kinderen een trauma is, niet in de laatste plaats omdat ze vanwege hun armoede worden gepest door hun medeleerlingen…..
Dit is geen Dickens verhaal uit de 19de eeuw, maar is er één uit de eenentwintigste eeuw…… Is het niet om
te janken??!!! De Britse regering zou moeten worden vervolgd voor poging tot doodslag en het op grote schaal schenden van mensen- en kinderrechten!!
9th
February 2019
The
DWP’s latest savage move could leave more people starving
New
evidence has emerged to
show that the DWP has
enacted yet another savage move. A job centre in East Sussex refused
to give people foodbank referrals. If replicated in other areas, the
implications of this are devastating for some of the most vulnerable
people in the UK.
“Destitute”
On
5 February, Lewes
Eye reported that
the DWP “banned local job centre staff from referring people to
foodbanks for emergency food supplies” in Lewis, East Sussex. It
printed a leaked email from Lewis job centre that stated:
“We
have been advised that DWP policy does not permit Jobcentres to refer
customers to food banks by issuing vouchers or referral forms.”
The
email said that
the job centre would “verbally signpost” people to other
agencies. According to Lewis
Eye,
the job centre told people “to go to the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) or
similar agencies”. As it pointed out, the implications of this
are huge, because people claiming benefits could be “left
destitute” if payments are delayed. As Universal
Credit rolls
out across the UK, foodbank use
is soaring. Since September 2018, over “1,000
people” now receive the controversial benefit in Lewes. As the
Trussell Trust reported:
“On
average, 12 months after rollout, foodbanks see a 52% increase in
demand, compared to 13% in areas with Universal Credit for 3 months
or less”.
According
to Lewis
Eye, foodbanks in
the area confirmed that
referrals stopped. It formed a clear conclusion about this, alleging:
“the
DWP is doing this because the government is frightened that
campaigners will be able to show that benefit cuts and the new
Universal Credit are driving people into destitution.”
“Slipping
through the net”
The Independent also spoke to
foodbank volunteers in Lewes. They confirmed these
allegations. Debbie Twitchen from Landport Foodbank in Lewes
said:
she
believed it was a way for the DWP to “hide that people are going
hungry and needing food banks” due to “failures in the system”,
and added: “I know that it’s an obvious ploy – if you can’t
show figures for something then it’s not happening is it?
Twitchen said she
feared this situation meant some people would start “slipping
through the net”.
According
to the Independent,
a DWP spokesperson claimed that
foodbank referral policy “had not changed”:
Jobcentres
will signpost people to food banks and other services according to
their individual circumstances, as part of their support to help
people manage their finances and get into work.
Deeper
issues
Thankfully,
this doesn’t (yet) seem to be national policy. However, The
Canary contacted
national foodbank network Trussell Trust about this issue. Its
response suggests that this mightnot
be an isolated incident. It said:
There
is still a very mixed picture reported by food banks about their
relationships with jobcentres,
As
a result, the foodbank network is working “to gather more
information” about the picture across the UK. Trussell
Trust told The
Canary its
two main concerns are:
How
do we make sure that someone facing hunger right now is able to
access the best possible support as quickly as possible.
How
do we move towards a future where people don’t need to be referred
to a foodbank in the first place.
Hunger
games
Yet
under the Conservatives, it seems unlikely that foodbank use will
drop. As The
Canary previously reported,
the impact of austerity alongside
the rollout of Universal
Credit is
devastating, forcing more people than ever to use foodbanks. In
2018, demand rose by 13%.
As The
Canary also reported,
in January, a Commons select committee report condemned the
Conservative government’s failure to “recognise and respond
to the issues of hunger, malnutrition, and obesity in the UK”.
Pointing to rising levels of food
poverty –
particularly for children – it made a damning recommendation: to
appoint a minister for hunger to deal with the spiralling crisis.
If
this does become national policy, it also poses another serious
issue. Foodbanks work with
“frontline professionals, such as doctors, health visitors, social
workers and the Citizens Advice”. These are the “other
agencies” who can also make foodbank referrals. But nine years of
Tory-led austerity means
that these services are stretched to breaking point already. Citizens
Advice Bureau (CAB) for example, first reported on
the impact of funding cuts in 2011. By 2017, a government
response stated that
68 CAB branches had closed since 2012.
It’s
shocking that people need to use foodbanks in the first place. But
for the DWP to make it even more difficult for vulnerable people to
eat is simply unforgivable.
Featured
image via Fréa Lockley
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Voor meer berichten over de ellende in GB onder het arme deel van de bevolking, klik op het label ‘armoede GB’, direct onder dit bericht.