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| Jacob Rees-Mogg thinks food banks are ‘uplifting’. For me, they’re a necessity | Jacob Rees-Mogg thinks food banks are ‘uplifting’. For me, they’re a necessity |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| It is indeed “rather uplifting” when “people voluntarily … support their fellow citizens”. And in my own experience, Britain is often the “good, compassionate country” that Jacob Rees-Mogg talked about in an interview with LBC Radio on Thursday morning. So part of me agreed wholeheartedly with his response to a question about the increase in food bank use. I am a food bank user, and I’ve been moved by the kindness and generosity of those strangers who donate goods and volunteer at these centres. | It is indeed “rather uplifting” when “people voluntarily … support their fellow citizens”. And in my own experience, Britain is often the “good, compassionate country” that Jacob Rees-Mogg talked about in an interview with LBC Radio on Thursday morning. So part of me agreed wholeheartedly with his response to a question about the increase in food bank use. I am a food bank user, and I’ve been moved by the kindness and generosity of those strangers who donate goods and volunteer at these centres. |
| There are very good people who regularly give to charity and pitch in their volunteer time to help the less fortunate. During a food bank visit, I’m always struck by how non-judgmental the staff are, how sensitively they ask me for information about why I’m there and what I need, and how a casual invitation to choose some “extra treats” for myself out of an assorted box of biscuits, chocolates and shampoo gives me the small serotonin boost of actually making my own choice about something. However, what the Conservative MP failed to mention is that the charitable instincts of the well and worthy are being increasingly put upon as the shrinking welfare state neglects its duty of care. | There are very good people who regularly give to charity and pitch in their volunteer time to help the less fortunate. During a food bank visit, I’m always struck by how non-judgmental the staff are, how sensitively they ask me for information about why I’m there and what I need, and how a casual invitation to choose some “extra treats” for myself out of an assorted box of biscuits, chocolates and shampoo gives me the small serotonin boost of actually making my own choice about something. However, what the Conservative MP failed to mention is that the charitable instincts of the well and worthy are being increasingly put upon as the shrinking welfare state neglects its duty of care. |
| I have twice been to a food bank in the last year and I’m currently gearing up to make another application. I do not do this lightly because, frankly, I feel humiliated having to ask for this type of charity. However, I’m desperate right now and supplies at home are dwindling. | I have twice been to a food bank in the last year and I’m currently gearing up to make another application. I do not do this lightly because, frankly, I feel humiliated having to ask for this type of charity. However, I’m desperate right now and supplies at home are dwindling. |
| Four weeks ago the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) withdrew the employment and support allowance (ESA) I depend upon after a work capability assessment. I have chronic, severe depression and a few other, related conditions but the assessor’s report failed to mention all the limits that this illness brings. I’ve been chucked back into the workforce, without warning or any transition or support from the DWP. Unfortunately for me, its letter only arrived a week after it had stopped paying me. It sent me into such a depressive fugue that it’s taken another three weeks to get my head off the pillow. | Four weeks ago the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) withdrew the employment and support allowance (ESA) I depend upon after a work capability assessment. I have chronic, severe depression and a few other, related conditions but the assessor’s report failed to mention all the limits that this illness brings. I’ve been chucked back into the workforce, without warning or any transition or support from the DWP. Unfortunately for me, its letter only arrived a week after it had stopped paying me. It sent me into such a depressive fugue that it’s taken another three weeks to get my head off the pillow. |
| So I’ve had no income for a month, with the prospect of another few weeks before I can get my DWP appeal heard and, with my savings long depleted and no prospect of a loan or help from my local council, I’m basically destitute. It looks like I’m going to be directed towards the dreaded universal credit, which is now rolling out in my area, so that will likely mean at least six more weeks without any income. I’m terrified. | So I’ve had no income for a month, with the prospect of another few weeks before I can get my DWP appeal heard and, with my savings long depleted and no prospect of a loan or help from my local council, I’m basically destitute. It looks like I’m going to be directed towards the dreaded universal credit, which is now rolling out in my area, so that will likely mean at least six more weeks without any income. I’m terrified. |
| It will not be easy to get to a food bank. I have no money for bus fare so I will walk to Citizens Advice to get the referral I need and then will have to walk to the food bank. It will be a 3.5-mile round trip and on the way back I’ll be carrying a lot of heavy tins. With my current low energy level, this is going to be a challenge, so my fevered mind is racing with anxiety, weighing up the need for food and toiletries against the physical cost of sorting it out. | It will not be easy to get to a food bank. I have no money for bus fare so I will walk to Citizens Advice to get the referral I need and then will have to walk to the food bank. It will be a 3.5-mile round trip and on the way back I’ll be carrying a lot of heavy tins. With my current low energy level, this is going to be a challenge, so my fevered mind is racing with anxiety, weighing up the need for food and toiletries against the physical cost of sorting it out. |
| Also, neither the Citizens Advice office nor the local food bank is open every day, so I will have to work out those details and, the way it looks right now, I won’t be able to get the supplies in before next week, by which time the cupboard really will be bare. | Also, neither the Citizens Advice office nor the local food bank is open every day, so I will have to work out those details and, the way it looks right now, I won’t be able to get the supplies in before next week, by which time the cupboard really will be bare. |
| My need to use a food bank is entirely linked to the reality of the chaotic and brutal benefits system. Whatever the prime minister might have said during the last election campaign, the reasons that people use food banks are not complex. My life may be complex but my route into destitution is actually very simple: each time the DWP kicks me off the system because they’ve lost my paperwork, or an assessor has falsely deemed me ready for work, or my income is reduced by a benefits cap, the welfare safety net gives way under me. This is when I have to ask those good, charitable citizens to catch me before I reach oblivion. Whenever this happens, my mental health takes a downward turn, which takes months to recover from. So the cycle of physical poverty is directly linked to my chronic ill health, and I’m really battling to get a solid enough foothold to ensure a consistent recovery. | My need to use a food bank is entirely linked to the reality of the chaotic and brutal benefits system. Whatever the prime minister might have said during the last election campaign, the reasons that people use food banks are not complex. My life may be complex but my route into destitution is actually very simple: each time the DWP kicks me off the system because they’ve lost my paperwork, or an assessor has falsely deemed me ready for work, or my income is reduced by a benefits cap, the welfare safety net gives way under me. This is when I have to ask those good, charitable citizens to catch me before I reach oblivion. Whenever this happens, my mental health takes a downward turn, which takes months to recover from. So the cycle of physical poverty is directly linked to my chronic ill health, and I’m really battling to get a solid enough foothold to ensure a consistent recovery. |
| My experience of the benefits system is borne out by research published recently by the Trussell Trust, in partnership with Oxford and King’s College universities. A fifth of food bank users were there because of benefit delays, and a third of these were because people had had their ESA withdrawn, as I have. The research also reported that over half of the households needing food banks included a disabled person, with one out of three of these experiencing mental ill health. It gives me little comfort to know that I’m a pretty bog-standard food bank user. | My experience of the benefits system is borne out by research published recently by the Trussell Trust, in partnership with Oxford and King’s College universities. A fifth of food bank users were there because of benefit delays, and a third of these were because people had had their ESA withdrawn, as I have. The research also reported that over half of the households needing food banks included a disabled person, with one out of three of these experiencing mental ill health. It gives me little comfort to know that I’m a pretty bog-standard food bank user. |
| It’s amusing to hear his fellow parliamentarians refer to Rees-Mogg as the “minister for the 18th century” but this points to a very serious revelation. His views on welfare hark back to another era, in which the poor and unwashed are judged as morally inferior and only the “strivers” are deemed worthy enough to benefit from those charitable crumbs dispensed privately by the rich, when they can be moved to do so. There’s a reason that the welfare state was seen as progress: this country has no desire to return to the brutality of the 18th-century politics. Hundreds of thousands of citizens need a reassertion of the social contract. Fast. | It’s amusing to hear his fellow parliamentarians refer to Rees-Mogg as the “minister for the 18th century” but this points to a very serious revelation. His views on welfare hark back to another era, in which the poor and unwashed are judged as morally inferior and only the “strivers” are deemed worthy enough to benefit from those charitable crumbs dispensed privately by the rich, when they can be moved to do so. There’s a reason that the welfare state was seen as progress: this country has no desire to return to the brutality of the 18th-century politics. Hundreds of thousands of citizens need a reassertion of the social contract. Fast. |
| • Maya Bly (a pseudonym) is a journalist. She has been unable to work regularly since 2010, owing to ill health | • Maya Bly (a pseudonym) is a journalist. She has been unable to work regularly since 2010, owing to ill health |
| Food banks | Food banks |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| Jacob Rees-Mogg | Jacob Rees-Mogg |
| Welfare | Welfare |
| Benefits | Benefits |
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