I recently visited Wisbech foodbank to donate 10 tins of food. The food bank is based at the Baptist church in Hill Street.
One of the staff told me that some of the people visiting the food bank have had their benefits ‘sanctioned’ (stopped) by the Jobcentre, which then gives them a voucher to take to the foodbank.
All this comes in the wake of a report by a cross-party group of MPs, supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, which suggests that benefit sanctions are one of the main reasons why 900,000 people over the last year had to visit foodbanks.
Since May 2010, the Tories have taken benefit sanctions to another level, with more than a million jobseekers having their benefits sanctioned for four weeks or more.
The Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory uses the slogans, ‘End all benefit sanctions now’ and ‘Make food banks history’, as part of our day-to-day campaigning work.
JOHN SMITHEE
Member, Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory,
Wisbech
Via e-mail
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