170,000 Stains on our Conscience

This morning, the BBC is reporting that 170,000 emergency food parcels were distributed to Scots in the past year. Around a third of them were provided for children.

It may be that the almost daily stories of benefit delays, cuts to local services and the suffering caused by Government policies have numbed you to stories like this. After all, the last eight years have been an exhausting litany of hardship. Sooner or later, it doesn’t seem exceptional. It becomes the norm.

This morning should be the wakeup call. Because there’s nothing normal about living in a rich country where over 50,000 children need emergency food parcels. It’s a national disgrace.

Delve into the data released by the Trussell Trust — one of the largest food bank operators in Scotland — and it’s obvious why we’re seeing a 17% rise in food bank use over the past twelve months. It’s a toxic mix of attacks on the welfare state and the rise in precarious work.

While 40% of people are relying on a food bank because of benefit delays or changes, 28% of people are in work but on a low income.

For those on benefits, or those moved on to the failing Universal Credit, they are being forced into crisis because of bureaucratic failings and trapped in a system that now seems to be designed to punish rather than support.

And for those in work, the continuing pressure on wages and the prevalence of low pay, insecure and low (or zero) hour jobs makes it impossible to make ends meet. Since 2010, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in work poverty has soared.

Behind every one of these 170,000 emergency food parcels is a personal tragedy. Each one represents panic, uncertainty and anxiety for people who are at their wits end and have run out of options for support.

In the past, there would have been an expectation that the state would provide a safety net. But the truth is that eight years of the Tories has ended the idea of a welfare state that supports people from cradle to grave.

When benefit claims are going weeks or months without being processed, or when the sanctions regime is removing benefits from people for weeks at a time, we can no longer pretend to be a society that offers full protection to our people.

And when workers are taking multiple jobs and still can’t make ends meet, it’s a sign that our economy is truly broken. When a job is no longer a guarantee that you’ll be able to put food on your table, something has gone very very wrong.

All of this is a result of political choices made over the past eight years. The UK Government’s plans to use austerity to get the economy back on track have backfired Having failed to meet their own economic targets, all they have to show for years of austerity are failing public services and more people forced into crisis.

As well as ending their failing economic policies, there are three things that both the UK and Scottish Governments could be doing now to make a difference.

Firstly, pause the rollout of Universal Credit, as Labour has called for. The idea of combining all benefits into one simple payment is a good one, but it has bene botched by the UK Government. They should now pause Universal Credit and focus on getting it right before rolling it out any further across the country.

Secondly, both Governments need to clamp down on low paid and insecure work. Campaigns such as Better than Zero have shown the precarious conditions that many people are working under. Ending the culture of low pay and insecure jobs means making fundamental changes to the way our economy works, but it also involves making clear what kind of work Government values.

The UK Government could have done this by supporting the Bill to end unpaid trial shifts, but instead they allow this practice to continue. Similarly, the Scottish Government should ensure that any business support it awards only goes to companies that provide high quality, secure work. There should be no more Government grants for companies that exploit agency workers or who refuse to allow their workforce to unionise.

Finally, the Scottish Government should reverse its cuts to the Scottish Welfare Fund. Yesterday, new research showed that millions has been cut from the fund, with some of the largest cuts falling on the most deprived communities. When people are already at breaking point, and local government services are struggling to keep up, it’s essential that support for the most vulnerable is maintained and extended.

Over the last eight years, our welfare state has been slowly eroded. The reality is that we no longer have a system that provides a reliable safety net for some of our country’s most vulnerable people. A future Labour Government will reverse these changes and rebuild our social security system to give people the support they need.

This morning there are 170,000 stains on Scotland’s conscience. If that isn’t a reason to act, I don’t know what is.