Lee Anderson is right. Foodbanks aren’t working. Time to bring them back into the Welfare State and get Britain back on track.
It’s not fashionable to say it these days but I’m glad someone is finally questioning the curious tale of British foodbank usage.
People don’t want to admit Lee Anderson is right, because he is ultimately exactly that thing that he says he is. He is right.
The rise in foodbanks is unsustainable, it can’t keep going on forever. As he said you can’t keep throwing money at the problem. As clever mathematicians and statisticians well know, correlation is not causation. Am I expected to simply accept that austerity has led to food poverty among the same group who conveniently don’t wish to work?[i] It wasn’t the case with the W boson, it’s certainly not the case with food poverty.
I do not understand why the notion – that people receiving parcels should register for budgeting and cooking courses – is controversial. We do it successfully already, with Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments. And there’s of course the very successful benefit cap policy, that applies the same principle.
There’s evidence to back this all up. Recently the DWP-funded pilot Supporting Families with Budget Responsibility, suggested that the Treasury could save money in a number of ways. For example, for families in receipt of child tax credits (currently, a universal benefit) the Treasury could save £2bn a year by getting families to fill out a form detailing why exactly they decided to have another child and what the child’s contribution to society would be. Furthermore, DEFRA recently completed a study showing that if you applied VAT on delicacies such as imported foie gras and fur hats, (like the successful VAT on heated goods policy), you could save the taxpayer £1bn.
It may seem slightly nanny-state-ish, but if you’re going to means-test certain benefits, you might as well look at the bigger picture (as George Osborne did).
Where was I? Oh yes, I was pitching an idea.
My idea
Patriotism is something I am far from comfortable with. I am after all very liberal[ii]. When it comes to things I care about however, I am willing to adjust my principles as so far as which they will allow me to care about the things I believe we should all care more about.
So yes I’ll admit it, I am very very very patriotic about the Welfare State. It makes me so proud to be British. I also think it works best when, (like most public services), it engages in more means testing, to make sure it is all functioning well and helping those it should be helping, rather than those who are trying to take advantage of the system. (So, the opposite really of what non-doms do, or rather their well-paid accountants, when filing in late March.)[iii]
So here’s an idea, let’s make food banks part of the welfare state. Then we can make it a legal requirement to sign up for courses, to receive parcels.
After all what could be more British than queuing and form filling? It feels distinctly British to me, as well as being a great use of everyone’s time.
I have to say I was surprised to see Civitas of all people, who I’d always assumed hated red tape, in The Times recently, pitching something similar to Lee Anderson; a kind of parenting classes / child benefit transaction. I have to admit, I’m pleased to have a prospective partner such as Civitas, for my new campaign alliance, hardly the most authoritarian of organisations![iv]
Afterall, who would you trust more to do referrals for a foodbank; a local authority (which is often what happens), or the DWP? Of course, it has to be one or the other, as Ewan McGregor would say, there is no middle ground.
Don’t get me wrong. I do think foodbanks are almost perfect entities in their current form. I may be biased however; I do foodbank referrals every week for someone I work alongside, who two years later continues to reside in Croydon’s Holiday Inn.[v] These referrals I do, ensure that the person I work with is not taking advantage of the Salvation Army-run foodbank. (They won’t accept a referral from her, herself, because she is a person who experiences food poverty, but they accept one from me because I have a .org email address to show I have moral authority.)
Not Bonnie Parker (of Bonnie & Clyde) herself could exploit that watertight process!
But as Lee Anderson suggests, it would be better if the foodbanks increased in procedures and process, rather than tried to strip any of that away. And I trust no-one better to do that than the DWP. Maybe they could even start checking people’s receipts? Energy Companies, including SSE are currently doing that, asking for the “weekly outgoings” for customers who have been in touch to ask for support. What wonderful customer service!
Foodbanks returning to the state would be one of the great manifestations of the modern welfare state. It’s time to bring them back to the state.
[i] I am aware that Gideon Osborne reshaped the benefits system so if one is on universal credit, there is literally almost no point in getting a job, because the DWP will simply reduce your benefits by such a figure – that if you do take a job (you’ll of course be sanctioned if you don’t) – that you will end up earning about £3 an hour. But I fear that’s something to complain about another time.
[ii] For liberal, small l, read “correct”
[iii] But that’s okay because their money is theirs and theirs alone, earned because they work very hard and besides they give 0.00001% of their income to charity… sorry I miswrote; private selective colleges
[iv] Get me via DM @deccamitford xx
[v] For more info, see the “Everyone In” scheme