Australia's Poverty

 

Australian charity Foodbank’s annual Hunger Report surveyed more than 4,000 Australian adults, finding the problem extended beyond those on fixed incomes and was affecting many people in work.

The report estimates about 500,000 households on any given day experience food insecurity, which describes being uncertain about getting enough food and compromising on nutrition through to disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.

The report said 21% of Australians – or more than 2 million people – had experienced severe food insecurity in the past 12 months. That was up from 17% on its 2021 report. Past estimates have put the rate of food insecurity in Australia between 4% and 14%, while a UN report said 16% of Australian children under 15 lived with an adult who was food insecure in 2017. 

The new Foodbank report said that among those experiencing food insecurity, 64% cited increased or high living expenses and 42% pointed to “reduced or low income or government benefits” as a key cause. Among those experiencing severe food insecurity, 67% said their circumstances were worse this year than last. Households with children reported food insecurity at 1.5 times the national average, while about a third of people in work had experienced it in some form in the past year.

Only two in five households who reported being food insecure had sought food relief, a statistic attributed to ongoing stigma and practical factors such as a lack of access or eligibility.

The report said the diverse range of people facing food insecurity was likely to increase “due to the range of external factors impacting households which may never have experienced food insecurity before”, such as the increasing cost of living, the frequency and severity of natural disasters and the pandemic.

Brianna Casey, the chief executive of Foodbank, said, "I’ve never seen anything like what we are seeing right now. It’s going to come as a surprise to many that we are seeing rates of food insecurity that are worse than at the height of the pandemic … People have come out of the pandemic in many instances in a more vulnerable position than they went in.”

Inflation and inadequate welfare fuelling Australia’s food insecurity crisis, Foodbank finds | Welfare | The Guardian