Are food banks a part of the benefit system now DWP advisors are being sent there?

141211foodbankriseNickRhodesupdate

This graph is now out of date. It only runs to April 2014 but the message is clear.

Iain Duncan Smith has indicated that he considers food banks to be a permanent part of the benefit system now, while answering questions posed by the Commons Work and Pensions committee.

He said he was “fully in support of food banks” and added that, “where people go to food banks because of problems with the department, the department tries to pick up those problems.”

He also said he was visited by representatives of a food bank before the summer break, who said some individuals had a problem with benefit payments.

He said he tried putting a benefits adviser in the food bank when it is open, so he or she can look into these cases. If the initiative works, it will be rolled out nationally.

Robert Devereux, the permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions, also giving evidence, said this is happening at a food bank at Manchester where two advisers attend on one day a week. There is also a phone line.

So, after blaming the rise of food banks on the Labour Party (wrongly – they proliferated under David Cameron), and after accusing food bank operators including the Trussell Trust of political campaigning against the Conservative Party, the Conservative Government now seems determined to see food banks become a fixture of British society.

Their efforts would be better spent eliminating the need for food banks altogether.

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23 Comments

  1. che October 28, 2015 at 12:35 pm - Reply

    The nazi state closes in

  2. toocomplex4justice October 28, 2015 at 12:58 pm - Reply

    If you can make it to a food bank you can work, you could have delivered a pizza on the way or picked up litter. That does not help the most vulnerable people who have no means to travel to the food bank or to obtain benefits advice. These are the worthless people in the condemned to die group who do not fit in to any of the requirements for ESA or PIP and will soon be making a nuisance of themselves by leaving their decaying remains scattered throughout the country. The freezing winter should help to keep the smell down and removal of the bodies will provide jobs tor those people who were previously declared too sick to work and serve to remind them what will happen if they do not buck up their ides and get on with it. Work makes you better off than dead.

  3. NMac October 28, 2015 at 1:05 pm - Reply

    I know I have said it before more than once, but just when you think the Nasty Party can’t get any nastier, one or other of it’s thoroughly unpleasant cretins goes and proves they can.

  4. Michael Broadhurst October 28, 2015 at 1:09 pm - Reply

    this really is a nasty and vile government,and dr death has got to be the vilest,slimiest,
    reviled toad of a man whoever walked.

  5. Mr.Angry October 28, 2015 at 1:11 pm - Reply

    What else can one expect from an incompetent imbecile like IDS

  6. foggy October 28, 2015 at 1:33 pm - Reply

    “If the initiative works, it will be rolled out nationally”

    Think outside the box……………………………………………………….

    ‘Dear ESA claimant, you were witnessed/photographed ,by our in-house DWP benefits advisor at the foodbank, giving details and receiving/carrying a bag of food. This shows cognitive and physical ability, therefor we deem you fit for work !’

    ‘Dear JSA claimant, you were witnessed/photographed ,by our in-house DWP benefits advisor at the foodbank, giving details and receiving/carrying a bag of food. This shows you were not actively seeking work that day so we’re extending your sanction’

    I know it sounds extreme but I really wouldn’t put it past that snake, IDS, to order this kind of thing.

    • che October 28, 2015 at 2:23 pm - Reply

      True, very true, this government is sly and evil.

    • Alison Murphy October 29, 2015 at 4:35 pm - Reply

      unfortunately it is not extreme at all foggy. it is exactly what they would do. they cut peoples money because they are deemed to be able to work. theres not enough jobs for everyone so they sanction for impossible criteria being breached. people die. they cover it up. they lie and lie and lie. they spout propaganda every day. they learn mantras and repeat endlessly. they demonised their victims.

  7. Dez October 28, 2015 at 1:47 pm - Reply

    FFS Who will rid us of this reptile Herr Smith.. Would agree having Smitts low life stormtroopers lurking at food banks,on the pretence of improving HIS departments service levels, is definitely not a good idea From his departments past record in covert operations and mischief beware of the trojan donkies bearing gifts.

  8. The Porcelain Doll October 28, 2015 at 1:53 pm - Reply

    This is cruel and disgusting, and makes me feel sick.

  9. AndyH October 28, 2015 at 1:56 pm - Reply

    How many working people have been referred to food banks?

  10. Chris Kitcher October 28, 2015 at 1:59 pm - Reply

    Its like putting a pedophile in a nursery school for gods sake. Only a Neo-Nazi would consider such an act.

  11. A-Brightfuture October 28, 2015 at 3:00 pm - Reply

    What’s this? the new JCP offices.

    Another move into making the welfare state one big charity.
    Notice IDS did not say the opposite.
    Put food banks into JCP offices.

    Always trying to get something for nothing.
    IDS scrounging charities again.

  12. Seriously angry October 28, 2015 at 3:11 pm - Reply

    Conservative party is the new age Khmer Rouge, culling the national by financial genocide

  13. Teresa Parry October 28, 2015 at 3:59 pm - Reply

    ”Thinking outside the box” as Foggy says;
    Are we going to see DWP taking over the Foodbanks?
    Will this lead to food vouchers instead of cash?
    Will there be a judgement? i.e. sanctioned so deserve to starve

    Visiting a Foodbank should be anonymous, only the Charity having your details for their use. Surely this is a Data protection issue?

    People will stop going to them as they will feel spied on by DWP who already interfere far too much into claimants lives.

    And, yes, I have visited them a few times, but wouldn’t now!

    • Teresa Parry October 28, 2015 at 4:03 pm - Reply

      Just thought, Independent Living Fund started as a Charity, then Administered by Gov. then ……….
      There are more precedents I’m sure

  14. Samuel Miller (@Hephaestus7) October 28, 2015 at 4:30 pm - Reply

    As welfare states have been restructured and cut back and basic entitlements have been denied, food banks have become secondary extensions of weakened social safety nets. The rise and soaring use of food banks in Britain are concrete evidence both of the breakdown of the social safety net and the commodification of social assistance. As such, they undermine the state’s obligation, as ratified in international conventions, to respect, protect and fulfill the human right to food. They enable the Cameron government to look the other way and neglect food poverty and nutritional health and well–being.

  15. Michael Broadhurst October 28, 2015 at 7:11 pm - Reply

    he must be the most hated man in Britain.he really is a scumbag of a man,the grim reaper.
    Cameron,Osborne and Smith,our eqiviliants of Hitler,Goebells and Himmler.

  16. Barry Davies October 30, 2015 at 9:56 am - Reply

    Food banks are in the main voluntary organisations perhaps they should stop doing it if the government is abusing their freely given work.

    • Mike Sivier October 30, 2015 at 11:38 am - Reply

      The government would love that.

      • Joanna November 8, 2015 at 1:29 am - Reply

        Mike, Robert Devereux is a slimy snake!! I saw his sleazy performances in the select committee meetings, when he could justify something he just trotted out his opinions and repeated them, he could not see he was wrong at all

  17. kennett127 October 30, 2015 at 6:46 pm - Reply

    Anyone aware in the US they give out food stamps Guess who was responsible for it day to day operation J.P.Morgan – I really wouldn’t surprise me if the DW&P adopted a similar system instead of giving out cash benefit’s they call you in once a fortnight and hand you 10 days supply of food miss and appointment and they sanction you keeping 5 days food

    Mike you better get drawing up a new FOI for when IDS jumps on this band wagon

  18. jonathansharpe November 1, 2015 at 11:43 am - Reply

    Would you like your portion of jobcentre advisor served up with baked beans or spaghetti hoops ?

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