SCOTS have the highest rates of food bank usage in the UK with figures also showing the number of people relying on the service is soaring, according to a report to be published today.
Statistics from the Trussell Trust, which run a network of emergency food provision outlets, revealed that per head of population the country had the highest proportion of people relying on them.
The figures from the charity showed that in Scotland the charity provided food parcels to 60,458 people between April and September this year, while providing 73,563 in the North West of England.
However, the English region has a population of 7.1million, compared to Scotland’s 5.2 million, giving respective food bank usage rates of 1 per cent and 1.2 per cent.
Over the same period last year 51,647 parcels were provided to Scots by the charity, corresponding to an increase of 17 per cent this year. Ewan Gurr, Scotland Network Manager of the Trust, said welfare difficulties were the main reason why people turned to them but there was also a rising number of people on low pay who needed their support.
“The increasing instability of the oil, gas and steel industries has already led to significant numbers of people being made redundant and figures revealed in the last week also show that unemployment has risen in Scotland while decreasing in the rest of the UK,” he said.
“Furthermore, if the proposed changes to Child Tax Credits are implemented... we are concerned that more working families will not be able to make ends meet.”
Gurr added that winter was particularly difficult for families on low incomes as households had to cope with the added expense of keeping their homes warm.
He said December last year was the busiest month for Scottish foodbanks with more than 10,000 referrals being made for emergency food supplies.
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