Something I've been hearing rather too
much of recently - from politicians and from political commentators - is that
the increasing number of people relying on the foodbank scheme is evidence that
poverty* is increasing in the UK
People who make such a claim are
confused. It is evidence of no such thing. Irrespective of whether or not poverty
is on the increase, the number of food bank users is not the right metric to
use to determine the number of people in poverty. Increased food bank use does
not necessarily mean increased hardship - it probably means increased help for
those in situations of hardship. Here's an illustration that will show why.
Imagine a village called
Poppellville consisting of 100 people. Ten years ago 30 of the people in the village were below the
median line and only 2 of them were getting help from food banks, as the
foodbank scheme was still in its infancy. Fast forward to the modern day, 18 of
them are below the median line, and 16 of these 18 are receiving help from the foodbank
scheme. Clearly this increase in people using the foodbank scheme in
Poppellville is not coinciding with an increase in poverty. In absolute terms, there
has been an 800% increase in the number of people in Poppellville now
benefiting from food banks over those ten years, while poverty has dropped by
40% in that same time period.
That illustration sums up what's probably the case in the UK. Rather than food banks being an
indication of increased economic hardship, they most likely are a demonstration
of our increased ability to respond to economic hardship with donations of food
for those that need it.
* For simplicity's sake, I'm using the woeful definition of
poverty that the UK
Child Poverty Act 2010 uses - a definition over which I've been critical
in the past.
