Foodbank Charity Trussell Trust Calls for 'Urgent' Inquiry into UK Poverty

Foodbank charity the Trussell Trust has called for an inquiry into the causes of UK food poverty and the surge in centres' usage.

The Christian organisation revealed that more than 350,000 people received three days' worth of emergency food from Trussell Trust foodbanks between April and September 2013, triple the number of people helped in the same period last year.

The charity argued that UK hunger is getting worse and Chris Mould, its executive chairman, declared that the figures, released to coincide with World Food Day, should "wake-up the nation".

"The level of food poverty in the UK is not acceptable. It's scandalous and it is causing deep distress to thousands of people," he said. "As a nation we need to accept that something is wrong and that we need to act now to stop UK hunger getting worse."

The Trussell Trust is writing to Prime Minister David Cameron to ask him to investigate the situation.

The organisation argued that rising living costs and stagnant wages are forcing more people to live on a "financial knife edge", where any change in circumstance can "plunge them into poverty".

Many people on low incomes are also being impacted by the implementation of the government's welfare reforms, according to the organisation.

Chris Johnes, Oxfam's UK poverty programme director, argued that the foodbank figures lay bare the "shocking scale of destitution, hardship and hunger" in the UK.

He said: "It is completely unacceptable that in the seventh wealthiest nation on the planet, the number of people turning to foodbanks has tripled."

"Oxfam welcomes The Trussell Trust's call for the Prime Minister to launch an urgent inquiry into why people are forced to turn to foodbanks."

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