Astonishing claim from the millionaire welfare minister
A wealthy Conservative minister provoked anger last night after
questioning the connection between the soaring use of food banks and the
Government’s squeeze on benefits.
Lord Freud, a Work and Pensions minister, insisted that the
recent sharp increase in people resorting to food handouts to feed their
families was not necessarily linked to benefits sanctions or delays. He
suggested more people were taking charity food because more food banks
existed – and he prompted Opposition jeers in the Lords when he denied
they were effectively a part of the welfare system.
Challenged by the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Tim Thornton, over whether ministers conceded a link between the benefits system and food bank use, Lord Freud replied that it was difficult to “make the causal connections”. The minister for welfare reform added: “It is difficult to know which came first – supply or demand.”
Later, Lord Freud, a former investment banker, came under fire from charities for being out of touch with the reality of life on the breadline. Campaigners recently warned that more than 500,000 Britons were using food banks because of a combination of benefit cuts, falling wages and the economic downturn.
Chris Mould, the executive chairman of the Trussell Trust, which runs 325 food banks, said: “The only people who seem unable to accept there is a social crisis driven by the cost of living is the Government.”
Critics have claimed a government plan to require benefit claimants to wait seven days before being able to apply for state support would increase reliance on food banks.
However, Lord Freud told peers: “Food banks are absolutely not part of the welfare system that we run. We have other systems to support people.” Asked what he meant, he replied: “If you put more food banks in, that is the supply. Clearly food from a food bank is by definition a free good and there’s almost infinite demand.”
A joint report by Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty five weeks ago said that the number of people using food banks has trebled in the past year alone. They said cuts to welfare payments, including below-inflation benefit rises and new Jobseekers’ Allowance sanctions, had fuelled the increase.
Last night, Chris Johnes, director of Oxfam’s UK poverty programme, said: “These comments don’t bear much relation to the reality. The fact is that food banks are stepping in to fill a gap left by the welfare system.” He added: “The evidence is very clear that people are going to food banks out of real need. They feel a sense of stigma that they can’t feed themselves and their families.”
Mr Mould said 30 per cent of people were referred to it because of benefit delays and another 15 per cent because of benefit changes. He said: “It’s absolutely clear there is a growing demand for emergency food supply. That is the consequence of a growing problem with people making ends meet... there is lots of evidence to that effect. The only people who seem unable to accept there is a social crisis driven by the cost of living is the Government.”
Liam Byrne, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “These comments show just how out of touch this Government is. The welfare revolution we were promised has failed. Unemployment is up, the benefits bill is soaring £20bn higher than planned, and food banks are growing by the day, yet the only ones getting any extra help from this Government are millionaires.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We welcome the contribution voluntary organisations and food banks play in supporting local communities, beyond the safety net provided by government.
“That is why Jobcentre Plus – for the first time – is now referring people to their services. Our welfare reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities, with the universal credit simplifying the complex myriad of benefits and making three million households better off.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/demand-for-food-banks-has-nothing-to-do-with-benefits-squeeze-says-work-minister-lord-freud-8684005.html
Challenged by the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Tim Thornton, over whether ministers conceded a link between the benefits system and food bank use, Lord Freud replied that it was difficult to “make the causal connections”. The minister for welfare reform added: “It is difficult to know which came first – supply or demand.”
Later, Lord Freud, a former investment banker, came under fire from charities for being out of touch with the reality of life on the breadline. Campaigners recently warned that more than 500,000 Britons were using food banks because of a combination of benefit cuts, falling wages and the economic downturn.
Chris Mould, the executive chairman of the Trussell Trust, which runs 325 food banks, said: “The only people who seem unable to accept there is a social crisis driven by the cost of living is the Government.”
Critics have claimed a government plan to require benefit claimants to wait seven days before being able to apply for state support would increase reliance on food banks.
However, Lord Freud told peers: “Food banks are absolutely not part of the welfare system that we run. We have other systems to support people.” Asked what he meant, he replied: “If you put more food banks in, that is the supply. Clearly food from a food bank is by definition a free good and there’s almost infinite demand.”
A joint report by Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty five weeks ago said that the number of people using food banks has trebled in the past year alone. They said cuts to welfare payments, including below-inflation benefit rises and new Jobseekers’ Allowance sanctions, had fuelled the increase.
Last night, Chris Johnes, director of Oxfam’s UK poverty programme, said: “These comments don’t bear much relation to the reality. The fact is that food banks are stepping in to fill a gap left by the welfare system.” He added: “The evidence is very clear that people are going to food banks out of real need. They feel a sense of stigma that they can’t feed themselves and their families.”
Mr Mould said 30 per cent of people were referred to it because of benefit delays and another 15 per cent because of benefit changes. He said: “It’s absolutely clear there is a growing demand for emergency food supply. That is the consequence of a growing problem with people making ends meet... there is lots of evidence to that effect. The only people who seem unable to accept there is a social crisis driven by the cost of living is the Government.”
Liam Byrne, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “These comments show just how out of touch this Government is. The welfare revolution we were promised has failed. Unemployment is up, the benefits bill is soaring £20bn higher than planned, and food banks are growing by the day, yet the only ones getting any extra help from this Government are millionaires.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We welcome the contribution voluntary organisations and food banks play in supporting local communities, beyond the safety net provided by government.
“That is why Jobcentre Plus – for the first time – is now referring people to their services. Our welfare reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities, with the universal credit simplifying the complex myriad of benefits and making three million households better off.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/demand-for-food-banks-has-nothing-to-do-with-benefits-squeeze-says-work-minister-lord-freud-8684005.html
13 comments:
Quote ...
"A DWP spokesperson said: “We welcome the contribution voluntary organisations and food banks play in supporting local communities, beyond the safety net provided by government.
“That is why Jobcentre Plus – for the first time – is now referring people to their services. Our welfare reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities, with the universal credit simplifying the complex myriad of benefits and making three million households better off.”
What 'doublespeak' that is!
And he is a Work and Pensions minister ?
How do they get these jobs ?
15 Photos From the Tahrir Square Protests You’ll Never See In Legacy Media.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-02/guest-post-egyptians-love-us-our-freedom
Iraqi Intel Reported Wahhabis Are of Jewish Origin.
http://www.terrorism-illuminati.com/content/2002-iraqi-intel-reported-wahhabis-are-jewish-origin
This Jew, Freud, is the vicious clown behind the bedroom tax.
He was also sent into Russia after the fall of communism and advised Yeltsin to give the nation's assets over to the oligarchs.
Liam Byrne should keep his mouth shut about Freud as Freud was also the advisor on welfare reform to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown when Labour was in office.
The abolition of the Social Fund has left people unable to gain access to emergency cash to deal with the sort of problem which is trivial IF you have lots of money but a calamity if you are already on the breadline!
And for the Minister in charge of the very department which has overseen the death of the Social Fund and the birth of the Foodbank to claim that they are not connected is too silly for words!
Earlier this week an attempt to evict a man because of rent arrears resulted in the man SHOOTING and KILLING one of the people trying to make him homeless. I do not give a damn about the safety of people who earn a living by making others homeless for the want of a few miserable quid while Bankers rake in billions from robbing us all blind.
This murder is wrong only because it was on too small a scale and didn't involve those at the top who have masterminded this mess and sold us ,but not themselves,into eternal slavery.
Try and picture what would happen if MP's,Councillors and Bankers started to get murdered by the people they thought they could safely enslave!
One dead Rothschild would do more good than an ocean of printers ink to change the minds of those who have robbed so many of so much for so long.
The people of Egypt have within the last few hours deposed their own DEMOCRATICALLY elected government because it simply failed them,they didn't sit still and accept that they had to put up with a failing government just because it was DEMOCRATICALLY elected,they got rid of the whole bloody gang of them and the next one will know that the same can happen again to them if they screw up.If only the British people had the balls to do the same rather than put up with a government they elect once it starts to prove how rotten it is!
HAVE YOU READ THE TALMUD LATELY?
http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/readtalmudlately.html
Stop shocking our kids about Holocaust, minister tells teachers.
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=10379
Politician with anti-Semitic past appointed Greek health minister
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/07/01/news-opinion/world/politician-with-anti-semitic-past-appointed-as-greek-health-minister#ixzz2Y4wMOadu
Kieran Crump Raiswell's killer 'laughed after stabbing'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23184366
EGYPT LOVES THE USA !!!
http://aangirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/egypt-loves-usa.html
Meet America's Money Masters
The common ethnic link is all just a "coincidence."
http://tomatobubble.com/id199.html
Awesome!
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