- 1 in 7 people across the UK face hunger and hardship and 1 in 5 children are growing up in this situation.
- Almost a quarter of children under four face hunger and hardship – making them the age group most at risk.
- The majority (58%) of people facing hunger and hardship are from a family where someone is working.
- More than half (53%) of people currently facing hardship are living in a disabled family.
- If no action is taken, a further 425,000 people will be facing hunger and hardship by 2026/27 – but Trussell’s analysis found updating Universal Credit could lift millions out of this situation.
The charity worked with economic and public policy experts WPI Economics to analyse government data under a measure of hunger and hardship, which tracks people living well below the poverty line who are most likely to be using a food bank or are at risk of doing so.
The Cost of Hunger and Hardship report found that 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.
Without urgent action from the UK 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.
Analysis of a range of policy options available to the UK government found that there are solutions available which, if implemented, could mean that millions fewer people face hunger and hardship. The modelling shows that updating our social security system delivers the biggest impact on tackling hunger and hardship in the UK.
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.
The research found certain groups to be particularly at risk of hunger and hardship.
- 53% of people facing hunger and hardship are either Disabled themselves or living with someone who is.
- 5.6 million people living in families with children are facing hunger and hardship.
- Work is not proving a reliable route out of hardship either, with the majority (58%) of people facing hunger and hardship living in a family where someone is working.
Rajun, a lived experience participant in the research, said: "I definitely have cut down on food and that’s not because I’m not hungry but because it’s important for me to prioritise my wife and daughter."
Charlotte, who also participated in the research, said: "You have no room to manoeuvre, you barely have enough to live month-to-month and certainly no possibility of saving and any contingency. If things go wrong, there is no way to solve them."
Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research and Impact at Trussell, said: “This research highlights the shocking reality that 1 in 7 people in the UK are facing hunger and hardship – that is a million more people than five years ago. This should not be the case in one of the richest countries in the world.
We need urgent action on hunger in the UK because, if nothing changes, the number of people facing hunger and hardship will only increase. People are turning to food banks because they don’t have enough money to live on. But we know it doesn’t have to be this way.
This research shows that solutions are available for the UK government to make real inroads in tackling hunger and hardship. The UK government has an opportunity to start delivering on its manifesto commitment to end the need for emergency food this autumn.
If the UK government is to deliver on its vision, it must make our social security system fit for purpose as an urgent priority. These findings show this is the most direct way it will end the need for emergency food. We urge the UK government to play its part in ending hunger and prioritise providing immediate relief to people facing hunger and hardship in its upcoming Budget, to avoid people being pushed further into hardship.”
Responding to these findings, Trussell is calling on the UK government to prioritise updating its social security system in its first Budget by:
- Introducing a protected minimum floor in Universal Credit that people’s payments never fall below to limit the deepest hardship caused by debt deductions and the benefit cap
- Ensuring the Local Housing Allowance is uprated in line with affordable local rents
- Halting plans to rollback support for disabled people by tightening the Work Capability Assessment.
To read the Cost of Hunger and Hardship research in full, visit trussell.org.uk/coh.