People on benefits will be able to claim food packages from Christian charity in 'emergencies'
The government will hand out food vouchers to people on benefits as part of a wider campaign to allow charities to step in when the state fails to deliver, it emerged today.
Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has signalled that from next month Jobcentre Plus staff will be able to distribute vouchers for food packages containing enough donated items to feed a family for three days.
The food is meant for "emergencies" ? when benefits payments are delayed, or debt means children go hungry. The scheme limits each family to three sets of vouchers a year. It will be operated from 79 food banks across the country run by the Trussell Trust, a Christian charity.
The charity says it will help 60,000 people this year, and aims to launch 200 UK food banks by 2013, feeding more than 140,000. The Trussell Trust director, Chris Mould, said the Labour government had stopped staff from issuing vouchers during the recession in 2008 because it worried about a food bank "postcode lottery".
Mould said he was worried about warnings, most recently from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, that inflation and reforms could see nearly a million more people in poverty. He said: "We do have concerns that the government reforms will mean we will have to deal with more cases as cuts hit."
The initiative is also politically controversial, allowing critics to claim charities are filling a vacuum left by the government.
The Trussell Trust depends on frontline professionals, such as health visitors, social workers and doctors, to give the vouchers to people they encounter who do not have enough money to feed themselves.
"We don't want to encourage a dependency and also recognise that poor families need the help of a care professional who can work out a plan for them," said Mould.
The Department for Work and Pensions said the government "recognised the merit of having additional targeted support in place, such as food banks, which play an important role in local communities. Jobcentre Plus is already in discussion with the Trussell Trust and they have agreed to work together in the new year."
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