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Southend Foodbank on BBC Radio Essex 21/9/21

7th October 2021

Cass Francis from Southend Foodbank was featured in news bulletins on BBC Radio Essex, talking about the cut to Universal Credit and other financial pressures facing low-income households this autumn. Cass, who has been at the foodbank since it started, said:

“We’ve got the end of the moratorium on evictions, the furlough scheme ends at the end of September and huge energy price increases, so things are looking pretty bleak really.”

“We would like to see the £20 uplift to Universal Credit to stay because it’s £86, £87 for people that are on the breadline. With increases in fuel prices as well right at the beginning of the cold part of the year, people are going to be literally choosing between heating and eating. So I think the £20 uplift would be something that should stay.”

 

To invite Southend Foodbank to discuss foodbanks, Trussell Trust anti-poverty campaigns, or food poverty across Southend, you are welcome to contact Cass via [email protected].

Find out more on the Trussell Trust campaign to #KeepTheLifeline and sustain the £20 uplift here; and the wider campaign to cancel the cut here, supported by over 100 organisations, including the Trussell Trust, Citizens Advice, The British Association of Social Workers, British Psychological Society, Carers UK, The Faculty of Public Health, Independent Food Aid Network, Macmillan Cancer Support, Mind the mental health charity, National Residential Landlords Association, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal Society for Public Health and the TUC.  The All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty has since put out a statement here, on the impact on poverty of not maintaining the £20 uplift in universal credit and working tax credits, and of not extending the uplift to legacy and related benefits.

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