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The Continuing Effects of Welfare Reform on Food Bank use in the UK: The Roll-out of Universal Credit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2020

AARON REEVES Open the ORCID record for AARON REEVES [Opens in a new window]  and
RACHEL LOOPSTRA
AARON REEVES
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
RACHEL LOOPSTRA
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK
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Abstract

In this paper we explore whether the recent rise in food bank usage in the UK has been induced by the roll-out of Universal Credit. We bring together official statistics on the introduction of Universal Credit with data on food bank usage from the UK’s largest food bank network. We test the relationship between Universal Credit and food parcel distribution using a range of causal identification strategies (such as fixed-effects model, Granger causality tests, and matching designs) and consistently find that an increase in the prevalence of Universal Credit is associated with more food parcel distribution. We also find that the relationship between Universal Credit and food parcel distribution is stronger in areas where food banks are active, suggesting food insecurity arising from Universal Credit may be hidden in places where food banks are largely unavailable. Though it is challenging to implement any large-scale change to social security, our analysis suggests systemic and persistent problems with this new system. Whilst the logic of Universal Credit is intuitively appealing, it has also proven to be unforgiving, leaving many struggling to make ends meet.

Keywords

food bankswelfare reformUniversal Credit
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 788 - 808
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

Both authors contributed equally.

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