Author: Ann McGauran

For hire as freelance public policy journalist writing about health and education. Compulsive tea drinker, trainee saxophonist, wife and mum

Mark heads to food bank after his wallet with £130 of JSA is snatched

Mark, before his sling was taken off. He's still in pain
Mark, before his sling was taken off. He’s still in pain

Mark Bothwell came back to the London food bank today. He’s putting a brave face on things, because that’s just what he does. Despite having depression, when he’s here he tries his best to be upbeat. He’s a great guy and endlessly grateful for any small postive developments. It was wonderful to see his face when he got some new (to him) shoes. But he’s had a terrible week.

His health issues also include a damaged shoulder, that’s not healing quickly. He’s only had his sling removed in the last few days, but is still in a lot of pain, and on tramadol for that (but is due to come off it in the next few days, as it’s not supposed to be a long-term solution). He says the tramadol gives him ‘weird thoughts’, and leaves him slightly spaced out. This may have contributed to his state of mind as he walked down a local high street on Tuesday. In his wallet was £130 – two week’s worth of jobseeker’s allowance. He felt someone near him, checked for his wallet, and realised it was being taken. ‘They grabbed it, and as I turned around in shock, I realised I’d fallen. I fell on my bad shoulder and instantly screamed.’

Mark went to the police station and immediately reported what had happened. I saw his crime number and card issued by the Met. Next he went to the council to see if they would give him some help in the form of a crisis payment from the emergency support scheme. They said no. The emergency support scheme for those in a crisis does focus mainly on items such as white goods, beds and mattresses. But there’s a provision for money too. According to the website, applicants can be considered if they are under ‘exceptional pressure’ or for example if the person suffers from a disability or chronic illness. Mark is currently on the waiting list for treatment for his depression, so surely he falls into this category? The website also says those who have been the victim of a crime ‘need to provide evidence to confirm what’s happened’. He has that evidence.

So I don’t understand why he wasn’t helped and will follow this up with the council on Monday. Alan the food bank manager says that the budget for the emergency support scheme has had to be set at 2007 levels, so it’s a pot of money under massive pressure currently.

Next, Mark went to the jobcentre to explain what happened and ask if he could have a food bank voucher. The staff there checked on the system, found out that he’s had three vouchers already, and said they weren’t prepared to give him another one. Yes, the Trussell Trust policy is that people should only be allowed to use three vouchers. The rationale is that by this stage clients should be receiving support from professionals such as housing officers, social workers and health professionals – to help them get back on track in the longer term. Food bank help is designed to cover a short-term crisis only. Food banks are surely not seen as an arm of the welfare state in a first world economy?

In the end, Alan did give Mark a voucher for some food today. He was breaking the Trussell Trust’s own rules, but it means he’ll eat this weekend. He told Mark: ‘I’ll give you one (a voucher) today, but all we’re doing is giving you a sticking plaster. It would be better if you got some help in the long term.’

Because his recent health issues are interfering with his ability to work, he’s applying to go onto employment and support allowance (ESA). Transferring over is not a smooth process. If his application is rejected he has a month to appeal and the appeal process will take some time. Increasingly, the state seems both unable or unwilling to offer a future to vulnerable people like Mark.

Top award for this London borough’s food banks

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Something worth celebrating happened here recently. Nominated by members of the public, the foodbank network in the borough got a special award for its contribution to the community. The ceremony was held at the town hall, and the lovely and very dedicated food bank manager Alan was there to receive it.

As I’ve said before, this cash-strapped local council isn’t perfect, but it does try harder than most to help the growing number of vulnerable people in the area. It also values social cohension and is striving against considerable odds to address issues of inequality and poverty.

The council is being starved of funding, like all local authorities. The Local Government Association (LGA) has pointed out that overall funding for local government has been cut by more than 40 per cent in the course of this Parliament. The LGA has already called on the government to think again about getting rid of the £347m emergency welfare fund for vulnerable people facing short-term crisis. This council knows that these are the very group most in need of food banks. So it does what it can. It provides space at a peppercorn rent for the spacious warehouse and its welcome centre, and ensures food donation baskets are provided in a number of council buildings that are open to the public. The support it can provide is limited, but of a practical, hands-on nature.

Since April 2013, this borough’s Trussell Trust food banks have given out enough food to provide 35,000 meals. It has fulfilled over 1800 vouchers, which translates to about 2300 adults and 1500 children. Alan’s team has collected nearly 40 tonnes of food and distributed just over 30 tonnes through the eight welcome centres across the borough. The organisation is now fully established, with strong teams in the warehouse and the welcome centres.

Alan adds: ‘All these numbers far exceed our expectation at the beginning of the year. It is not my wish to enter the political debate but I will share with you that the vast majority of people we meet are sincere and their need is genuine. We continue to be grateful to the many churches and schools who have been the chief contributors of food.’ This, he says, has been supported by the permanent collection points facilitated by the local council and by collection points in local Tesco and Sainsbury supermarkets. The challenge continues to gather in sufficient of the less popular food items so that the volunteers can make up complete packs. The local food bank network now has a clever App that provides details of food abundances and shortages, and will help enormously (assuming donors have smartphones etc).

Some people are falling through the safety net, though. They’re very vulnerable indeed, and for a significant number food bank packs are not going to solve their problems. What they need is long-term support and intervention – from a state that’s capable of engaging with them. They deserve welfare policies that offer proper help to individuals struggling with a host of adverse circumstances, including chronic ill health. Not just sanctioning their benefits when they ‘fail’ to apply for enough ‘jobs’, or being left without benefits while they wait in limbo for decisions on employment and support allowance (ESA) to be reconsidered.

Janine, the magic of MST, and the myth of easy-to-get food bank vouchers

The new lie in circulation is that people are heading to food banks in vastly increasing numbers simply because they’re now aware that food banks exist. Was it Chancellor George Osborne who got this myth up and running earlier in 2013, when he suggested food bank use had gone up, ‘because people have been made aware of the food bank service through jobcentres’? The insulting implication being that a bunch of layabout chancers are flooding through the doors of food banks in search of freebies that ‘hard-working people’ would never dream of taking.

It’s been emphasised already, and it was good to see this addressed in the first episode of Famous, Rich and Hungry, but the message hasn’t quite got through yet: Getting a food bank voucher is anything but easy. If you want to use a Trussell Trust food bank, you need to be referred by the jobcentre, by a frontline professional such as a doctor, a health visitor, a social worker or the police. They are deemed to be best placed to identify if you’re going through a real crisis and that your need is genuine. It’s only then that a voucher will be issued.

Are thousands of people in the UK – escalating numbers every month – really jumping through those hoops to collect a three-day supply of long-life food, without being in real need of help? In six months of interviewing clients at a number of food banks in this fairly typical London borough, I’ve met very few indeed whom I thought were anything other than desperate. Most of them have problems with delayed, sanctioned or stopped benefits, or are trying to move from jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) to employment and support allowance (ESA) due to (often extreme) ill health. Most have disabilities and multiple health problems, including severe depression in many cases.

Some, like Janine (not her real name) who came in just before the weekend, are former victims of domestic abuse and experience periods of crisis when the food budget becomes impossible to manage. Janine, a mum of a 12 year-old boy and a 15 year-old girl, is starting to get her life back on track after splitting with her partner. He’s a drug addict and an alcoholic, and her children had to watch him being violent towards Janine. She says her 42-year-old ex-partner is now very ill indeed as a result of his addictions. Janine, 39, was happy for me to use her real name and be photographed, but I’ve given her a pseudonymn instead to protect her identity and that of her still-vulnerable family.

Her life hit its lowest point in October last year, after she lost the job she loved in the charity sector. By that time she’d become extremely depressed because of her partner’s problems with addiction and violent behaviour, and the effect on the children. She has no support from any extended family. Why did she need to access a food bank? Had she simply heard that food banks offered free food, and decided to head on down? No. She was referred by her council social worker, who gave her a voucher. She needed it because she is struggling to survive on £71 a week of ESA and the £56 (child tax credit and child benefit) she gets for her daughter. She’s currently paying heating of £20 a week and water rates of £7, plus £3 for her council flat rent (reduced from £38 since she lost her job). Her son of 12 moved back in with her a week ago after he was removed from his father’s residence. Janine says that while with his father he was fending for himself – running out on the streets until late at night and missing school.

So although she’s relieved to have her son back, she has another mouth to feed, but as yet no benefits in place for him. That’s what plunged her into crisis this week.

Luckily, her plight was spotted by a key person who’s been working extremely closely with her and her children. Our local council has got involved with an intensive family and community based treatment programme that originates in the US called MST (Multisystemic Therapy). It’s an approach that’s fairly new to England, and ‘blends the best clinical treatments including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and family therapy to put parents and caregivers in control and to improve family relationships and functioning’. It aims to treat troubled young people ‘in the full context of their lives’. MST is also offering to support Janine as she tries to get back into the workforce. The MST key worker told Janine to ask her social worker for a food voucher, and Janine says the only reason she got it is ‘because my boy came back to live with me’. She had only ever used the food bank once before, with a voucher.

She’s evangelical about the positive impact the programme is having – given that it’s a small team based out of a local health centre: ‘I suffer from really bad depression, and they’ve been brilliant to me. They’re helping me sort out my finances, and that help is ongoing. My 15-year-old daughter suffers from anxiety, and is seeing a paediatrician(within the MST programme). They’re really good. They’re helping me with my CV and with ‘getting back into work.’

Before MST got involved, local council social services ‘didn’t provide the support, to be honest’, in Janine’s view. ‘My ex had alcohol and drugs problems, but the council still let my boy live with his father.’ She says he daughter has ‘a bit of an eating disorder, and is losing too much weight – myself and MST are keeping an eye.’ Her daughter did not go to school for six months last year, but she’s now in a good specialist school for children who have witnessed violence and suffer from conditions such as anxiety and depression. ‘There’s an open door at all times for her to go in and out and talk to people. She’s doing really well, and is ready for her exams. She’s caught up.’

It’s still too early to feel that things have permanently improved for the family, but so heartening to hear Janine say that MST is the best thing that’s ever happened to her: ‘It’s changed my whole life. My daughter is so much more relaxed. The people from MST turn up at school and ask her if she has any problems.’ Her account of why she was offered a food bank voucher should be read alongside the stories of greedy, dishonest, food bank clients that are starting to feature in some sections of the media.