News / No let-up in demand for food parcels
DEMAND for food parcels in Shetland shows no sign of abating: following a huge increase last year, the Salvation Army in Lerwick expects to distribute slightly more aid packages to those who have fallen on hard times in 2014.
Lerwick corps officer Angela Nunn said that 162 parcels had been distributed in the first nine months of this year, a slight rise on the 151 dished out during the corresponding period in 2013.
Because of Shetland’s low unemployment rate and relative affluence, poverty can be something of an unseen problem. The cost of living crisis may be a UK-wide one, but the islands’ cold, windy climate means many in low-paid employment find keeping their homes heated a real challenge.
“I think [the perception of poverty] is changing bit by bit, but there are still people who think we send the food parcels south,” Nunn said.
“If you’re in work and in a decently paid job here, you’re probably not aware of how high the cost of living is, how low benefits are and how difficult it is for people on the minimum wage.”
She believes the problem in Shetland may be worse than the figures show, as “we’re not reaching as many of the working poor as we’d like to reach”.
Until last year the job centre in Lerwick was formally referring people to the Salvation Army for help, but Nunn that in January “somebody phoned to say we’re not referring people to you any more – I was horrified”.
She said it appeared the edict had “come down from on high” from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Formal referrals are no longer allowed, but “signposting” the availability of food banks does seem to be permissible.
Nunn said it appeared the DWP was concerned that, if someone on benefits was sanctioned, to then refer them to receive a food parcel “undermined that sanction [because] sanctions are meant to punish people”.
“Obviously I’m not going to win that argument, but what about people who have just signed on – do they not deserve a food parcel before their first benefit comes through? I think it’s an attempt to completely distance the benefits system from food banks altogether,” she said.
There continues to be a steady stream of referrals from Shetland Islands Council’s benefits office and from the local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) branch.
The downside is it means “someone probably has to go and tell someone else their story. If you’ve already been at the job centre it’s quite a hassle and can be quite harrowing, and if you have to go to CAB or somewhere else, it’s maybe too much for some people”.
Nunn continues to prefer having a referral to “make sure people aren’t pulling a fast one”, though it tends to be only “the odd one or two”, and because it allows those who are donating food to be sure it is going to people genuinely in need of help.
Perhaps because they live in a part of the country undergoing an economic boom, Nunn said there were still sometimes folk who really required help but “say they think they’ll manage – there is that element of pride, which is in some ways a lovely thing. We send out letters [with the food parcels] saying ‘don’t feel bad, it’s your turn to be helped now’”.
Another area she is looking at is contacting rural schools and health centres to get referrals because “unless you’ve got a social worker or a housing worker visiting, I’m probably not going to catch you – there are a whole lot of people needing food parcels that we’re not reaching yet, so I’m hoping to spread the net a bit further”.
Nunn said there was a widespread feeling that cuts and changes to the welfare system under the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition at Westminster are a major factor behind the increased use of food banks in recent years.
Neither benefits nor the national minimum wage have anywhere near kept pace with inflation since the global financial crisis in 2008. On Monday UK chancellor George Osborne unveiled fresh plans to freeze working-age benefits for two years.
Nunn points out that basic necessities such as food and electricity are now much more expensive, and while things like computers and holidays have dropped in price, “people on benefits aren’t buying those, they’re buying essentials and those have just gone up and up”.
The presence of food banks in a wealthy twenty first century nation was one of the issues to come under the microscope in the Scottish independence debate. At the weekend a huge volume of food bank donations were gathered by campaigners in Glasgow’s George Square.
A collection is being planned by those organising an event, Let’s Make Change – Let’s Start Locally, at the Clickimin Bowls Hall at 7pm on Tuesday evening.
Nunn said she had noticed a “recent upsurge” in people offering to volunteer and a number of fresh enquiries about making donations, though “whether that has come on the back of the independence referendum, I don’t know”.
- Anyone interested in volunteering or donating to the Salvation Army’s food bank in Lerwick can contact Angela Nunn on (01595) 693094 or by emailing Angela.Nunn@salvationarmy.org.uk
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