Oxfam UK has estimated that: “36% of the UK population are
just one heating bill or broken washing machine away from hardship”. The
government has an obligation to ensure that the right for all human beings to
be free from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, as specified in a UN
covenant to which the UK is a signatory, is upheld. The UK is also a signatory
to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which specifies a duty to
provide “material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard
to nutrition.”
In the United Kingdom there are nearly 5 million people today
living as food insecure. Wendy Wills, an expert in food and public health,
defines this as those who are unable to acquire or consume an adequate quality
or sufficient quantity of food made available in socially acceptable ways, or
who have the (regular) uncertainty that they will be able to do so. In 2014,
more than 20 million meals were provided to people unable to provide for themselves.
Credit Suisse put the UK fifth in a ranking of nations by
wealth, behind the US, Japan, China, and France. Based on 2010 UK Census
figures, per capita wealth in the UK is about US$182,825, but this wealth is
not distributed evenly across the population. While the wealthiest fifth of the
population controls nearly 41% of the income, the poorest fifth have just 8%.
For those living in poverty in the UK today the amount of
disposable income for the poorest fifth of households is about £156 per week.
This is income after taxes and transfer payments and includes spending on
clothing, getting to work, childcare, keeping warm, washing, communicating with
others, paying for housing, celebrating birthdays, holidays, paying for school
trips, uniforms and supplies, socialising and cooking (including not just the
food but also the fuel to run the cooker, microwave, and refrigerator).
For many households (not just the poorest), the most
flexible item in their budget is food expenditure. Families in this position
are not concerned with the environmental or social implications associated with
the food that they buy, but instead concentrate on “getting fed”. Because it is
now less expensive to feed ones family on processed food (with higher salt,
sugar, and fat content) than fresh food and as the cost of food is predicted to
continue to rise, we can expect to see not just increases in the numbers of
people going hungry and relying on emergency food aid, but also increases in
the rates of dietary-related illnesses such as obesity, diabetes and
malnutrition. These health implications will, in turn, continue to place
greater pressure on an already-struggling NHS.
The Office for Budget Responsibility indicates that by 2020
there will be a further loss of a million government jobs (compared to the loss
of 400,000 government jobs over the course of the last parliament). One can
only conclude that income inequality will widen, a state that already has one
of the highest divisions between wealthy and poor in Europe (only lower than
Turkey and Portugal in 2010).
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