Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce measures in the current parliament to eliminate the need for food banks.

Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation.

The Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling poverty and supporting people on lower incomes. We will spend over £242bn through the welfare system in 2022/23 including £108bn on people of working age and over £134 billion on pensioners. Of the total amount, around £64 billion will be spent on supporting disabled people and people with health conditions in Great Britain.

We understand the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and have taken action to support and help families worth over £22 billion in 2022-23. The recently announced package of support worth £15 billion to help households with rising energy bills, brings total government support to £37 billion.

Government is also providing an additional £500 million from October to help households with the cost of essentials, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England, £421m will be used to extend the Household Support Fund (October 2022 – March 2023). At least a third of the extension funding (£140m) will be spent on pensioners and at least another third (£140m) will be spent on families with children.