Foodbank use rising year on year as Scots find cost of living increasingly difficult to bear
Foodbank use in Scotland has again broken records as new figures reveal more people relying on emergency food aid than ever before.
Data from the UK’s largest foodbank provider, The Trussell Trust, shows that in the 2014/15 financial year, 133,726 emergency supply packages were given out to people in crisis by its 51 food banks - an increase of 13% on the previous year.
Included in this was 43,962 packages for children.
Scotland is only second to the north west of England in the number of referrals to food banks.
Benefit delays remain the primary reason for referral to a food bank in Scotland, with more than a quarter of recipients affected.
Worryingly more people are being referred to the charity’s foodbanks due to low income, up to 22% from 19% the year before.
Across the UK, the number of people referred to a food bank exceeded one million for the second time.
Ewan Gurr, the trust's Scotland manager, said: "The figures released today highlight an alarming number of people hitting a crisis and being unable to buy food.
"The main increase has been to the numbers on low incomes, which is leaving people without enough to live on. In addition to that, almost half of referrals in Scotland are due to a benefit-related difficulty.
"In Scotland, we have heard from people using food banks due to the heart-breaking reality of losing a job in the oil and steel industries, others feeling a sense of despair after delays to a Universal Credit payment and some who have experienced sanctions that have impacted on their physical and mental wellbeing.
"We encourage our policy makers to listen to those using food banks and learn from their experiences. This way we can ensure the right changes are prioritised to help reduce the hunger and poverty we see in food banks every day."
A UK government spokesman said: "Reasons for food bank use are complex so it is misleading to link them to any one thing.
"This government is determined to move to a higher-wage society, introducing the new National Living Wage that will benefit over one million workers directly this year, and we're also spending £80bn on working-age benefits to ensure a strong safety net for those who need it most."
