CAP has responded to the APPG on Ending the Need for Food Banks Call for Evidence
Key points:
- CAP’s national polling found that 25% of adults in the UK report having a deficit budget. Among CAP’s debt advice clients, this figure has remained steady at roughly 45–50% for several years, indicating that increases in benefit levels have not kept pace with the cost of essentials.
- CAP has found that even where households receive Universal Credit (UC), they still frequently cannot afford the essentials. CAP would encourage the Government to use the Standard Financial Statement (SFS) as a baseline benchmark for setting UC levels.
- CAP is concerned that deductions and advance payments force claimants into debt from day one. 47% of claimants face deductions from their award, and the requirement to repay advance payments places an impossible burden on already tight budgets.
- CAP recognises that the Government has ambitions to make work pay, tackle poverty and end mass dependence on emergency food parcels. CAP would encourage the Government to note that these ambitions cannot be achieved while UC remains at a level that leaves households unable to cover the cost of essentials.
- CAP’s leading ask is that the Government legislates for an annual uprating of UC benchmarked against the SFS and the cost of essentials, with a comprehensive independent regular review that includes meaningful engagement with people with lived experience.
