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| Job advice to be offered at food banks, Iain Duncan Smith tells MPs | Job advice to be offered at food banks, Iain Duncan Smith tells MPs |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Job advisers have been posted in a food bank as part of a trial that is set to be rolled out across the UK, the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has announced. | Job advisers have been posted in a food bank as part of a trial that is set to be rolled out across the UK, the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has announced. |
| People who turn to charities for help when they cannot afford to eat will be given advice on claiming benefits and finding work while they pick up emergency food parcels, Duncan Smith told the work and pensions select committee. | People who turn to charities for help when they cannot afford to eat will be given advice on claiming benefits and finding work while they pick up emergency food parcels, Duncan Smith told the work and pensions select committee. |
| “I am trialling at the moment a job adviser situating themselves in the food bank for the time that the food bank is open, and we are already getting very strong feedback about that,” he said. | “I am trialling at the moment a job adviser situating themselves in the food bank for the time that the food bank is open, and we are already getting very strong feedback about that,” he said. |
| Related: David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs - Politics live | Related: David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs - Politics live |
| “If this works and if the other food banks are willing to encompass this and we think it works, we think we would like to roll this out across the whole of the UK.” | “If this works and if the other food banks are willing to encompass this and we think it works, we think we would like to roll this out across the whole of the UK.” |
| Robert Devereux, the permanent secretary to the Department for Work and Pensions, who appeared alongside Duncan Smith at the hearing, said two advisers had been working one day a week at the Lalley Welcome Centre in Manchester. | Robert Devereux, the permanent secretary to the Department for Work and Pensions, who appeared alongside Duncan Smith at the hearing, said two advisers had been working one day a week at the Lalley Welcome Centre in Manchester. |
| Duncan Smith said: “They are to provide support to people who come in and that can include people saying, ‘I haven’t had my payment’”, giving the example of a claimant whose money was delayed because officials had not seen the right documents. | |
| He added: “I asked how often is this happening, and they said: ‘Well, a bit.’ But what’s happening much more now is not people coming in with questions about their benefits, but they are actually interested in where [they] can find work.” | |
| Sister Rita, a nun at thewelcome centre in Collyhurst, north-east Manchester, said it was her idea to invite advisers from the DWP to help the food bank clients. | |
| She said: “I wrote to the minister and the prime minister and received very nice letters from them both, but it was Iain Duncan Smith who said we could have a meeting with him in London.” | |
| Asked whether she met Duncan Smith or one of his associates, the nun said: “We saw the minister. I wouldn’t settle for anything less!” | |
| She said the meeting happened around three months ago and the DWP advisers started coming in about three weeks ago. They are able to help clients who are having benefits problems, for example, if they have been sanctioned, she said. | |
| “I think it’s a brilliant, brilliant thing that the government’s doing [this],” she said. | |
| MPs investigating benefits delivery have been told that long waits for benefit payments are the single biggest cause of food bank use and are forcing claimants into debt and “survival crime” such as shoplifting. | MPs investigating benefits delivery have been told that long waits for benefit payments are the single biggest cause of food bank use and are forcing claimants into debt and “survival crime” such as shoplifting. |
| Related: Food banks have become a lifeline for many, but where is the way out? | Patrick Butler | Related: Food banks have become a lifeline for many, but where is the way out? | Patrick Butler |
| The Trussell Trust food bank network has said more than one in four of its clients receive food parcels as a result of benefits delays. | The Trussell Trust food bank network has said more than one in four of its clients receive food parcels as a result of benefits delays. |
| A survey of 51 of its food banks revealed clients typically experienced benefit delays of nearly five weeks, although waits of up to 20 weeks were not uncommon. | A survey of 51 of its food banks revealed clients typically experienced benefit delays of nearly five weeks, although waits of up to 20 weeks were not uncommon. |
| On Wednesday morning, Duncan Smith questioned Trussell Trust figures that showed a 398% increase in the number of people using its food banks between 2012 and 2014 in Scotland. While the figures were “genuinely put together” they were “not absolutely clear”, he told the committee. | On Wednesday morning, Duncan Smith questioned Trussell Trust figures that showed a 398% increase in the number of people using its food banks between 2012 and 2014 in Scotland. While the figures were “genuinely put together” they were “not absolutely clear”, he told the committee. |
| Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “The revelation that the government is considering placing DWP staff in food banks across the country, highlights the grim reality that people depending on emergency food aid is increasingly a central part of Iain Duncan Smith’s vision for our social security system. | Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “The revelation that the government is considering placing DWP staff in food banks across the country, highlights the grim reality that people depending on emergency food aid is increasingly a central part of Iain Duncan Smith’s vision for our social security system. |
| “Under the Tories food bank use has risen exponentially, leaving more than a million people depending on emergency food. This is in no small part due to the secretary of state’s incompetent and callous running of the DWP. | “Under the Tories food bank use has risen exponentially, leaving more than a million people depending on emergency food. This is in no small part due to the secretary of state’s incompetent and callous running of the DWP. |
| “It is of course important that people are able to better access advice and support from DWP staff. However, the fact that Iain Duncan Smith is so relaxed about extreme food poverty that he has allowed it to become an accepted element of the national planning for the DWP is deeply worrying.” | “It is of course important that people are able to better access advice and support from DWP staff. However, the fact that Iain Duncan Smith is so relaxed about extreme food poverty that he has allowed it to become an accepted element of the national planning for the DWP is deeply worrying.” |
| Duncan Smith was giving his first oral evidence to the committee in the current parliament. In wide-ranging testimony, he also denied claims that changes to tax credits would undermine his flagship universal credit initiative. | Duncan Smith was giving his first oral evidence to the committee in the current parliament. In wide-ranging testimony, he also denied claims that changes to tax credits would undermine his flagship universal credit initiative. |