Jack Monroe says families need urgent help with rising bills

Image source, Parliament TV

Image caption,

Anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe is calling for an inquiry into the UK's use of food banks

Anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe has urged the government to help low income families hit hardest by rising bills.

The food writer joined a panel speaking to the Work and Pensions Committee about the cost of living crisis.

The panellists asked the government to step in with urgent changes to the way all benefits are assessed.

Mike Brewer, from independent thinktank the Resolution Foundation, called for an immediate uplift in Universal Credit.

This benefit is only set to increase by 3.1% when inflation could hit 8%, he said.

He also called for an increase in other benefits like pensions in the autumn.

The idea of only increasing benefits in April based on the previous year's inflation figure "works fine when inflation is stable" said Mr Brewer but in these unusual times "is just coming apart a bit".

Morgan Vine, from charity Independent Age, called for targeted support for the lowest income families.

Peter Smith, from National Energy Action highlighted the £200 Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced would be taken off household energy bills in England, Scotland and Wales from October, and paid back in instalments over five years. Mr Smith said this should be given as a non-repayable grant to vulnerable customers.

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Ms Monroe said the price of bread, rice, pasta, and cooking oil would dramatically increase because much of their raw ingredients were imported from Russia and Ukraine.

"So it's the people who are already struggling who are going to be really struggling for the most basic household essentials, the absolute bare bones of what you need to run a household," she said.

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Image caption,

Jack Monroe has called for a government inquiry into the UK's dependence on food banks

She said: "There are millions of children living in poverty in Britain today and their families' financial situations have been becoming increasingly untenable.

"The impact of the cost of living crisis on those households is going to be in some cases fatal and that's not a term that I use lightly."

Ms Monroe said there was "definitely work to be done around a proper inquiry into the rise of food banks in Britain".

She said the social welfare system was being "patched up and held together by ordinary citizens and volunteers".

"I don't know whose responsibility it is to conduct that inquiry but I suspect they're probably in this house," she said.