Mhairi Black is just a bit of a babe. As well as being Britain’s youngest MP for zillions of years, she’s a pretty good one at that. Her most recent feat is to royally call out Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, for failing to admit there might very well be a link between food bank usage and government cuts.
You see, right now, food bank usage has shot up. People visiting them are often those who’ve had their benefits sanctioned – Mhairi mentioned a man from her constitutency of Paisley and Renfrewshire South who was so hungry he collapsed on the bus on the way to the Job Centre so he was sanctioned – or simply people who are in work and just not paid enough.
‘The Trussell Trust says the number of people using their Scottish food banks increased 398% between 2012 and 2014. Do you think there is any correlation with the welfare reforms that have been implemented?’ Mhairi asked Iain Duncan Smith in parliament, reports The Daily Record.
His reply: ‘I think the Trust figures, while genuinely put together... are not absolutely clear about individual cases or the connections with them.’
So he basically dodged the question. He also said the government is ‘fully in support of food banks’. He has suggested that Jobcentres post an officer in every food bank so that people who are living on handouts have someone to talk to about job prospects – or, maybe, about the benefit sanctions that have left them hungry.
The problem is? Many people using food banks are working, they’re just so underpaid, they can’t afford to eat. Nice to see Mhairi’s speaking up for them.
Meanwhile, the Trussell Trust has indicated that they’d like a little prior notice before Job Centre staff start turning up to their food banks. ‘We welcome the government’s interest in exploring new ways the DWP might help people at food banks who have hit crisis as a result of problems with welfare delivery.
‘But we would also suggest there first needs to be a dialogue between the DWP and the Trust network about possible challenges and opportunities that hosting DWP advisers in food banks could afford.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.