Emergency food parcels cannot address worsening poverty, and their provision could contribute to the spread of COVID-19, says the Independent Food Aid Network.
Without government action to improve incomes we will become a country in which millions of people are permanently reliant on food charity for survival, says IFAN.
The fall in living standards has been driven by the freeze in the value of working-age benefits and other cuts, such as the two-child limit, slowly taking effect.
Child Poverty Action Group is urging the Government to protect children in low-income families facing extra financial pressure and the loss of free school meals.
The Government’s justifications for its policy to restrict support to two children are based on assumptions that “simply do not hold true” says the Work and Pensions Select Committee.