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Fifth of Britons below poverty line

Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:20AM GMT

A charity has warned that 13 million of the UK population of 62 million live below the poverty line, as more Britons find themselves struggling to make ends meet due to the governments benefit cuts.
According to the Trussell Trust, the number of people in need of emergency aid is predicted to increase, with 500,000 Britons expected to need food parcels just to survive by 2015. Food banks providing a minimum of three days emergency food and support to people experiencing crisis in the UK, have also warned that the full impact of the recent budget will start in 2013. More and more people on low incomes are finding it impossible to make it to the end of the week. Across the UK the Trussell Trust food bank network is facing dramatic increases in demand for help as front line care professionals refer more of their clients to us, said Chris Mould, chief executive of the Trussell Trust. Food banks which are being opened in the UK at the rate of one every four days, fed more than 60,000 British people last year, but they expect at least 100,000 in 2012. The number of food banks in the UK has almost tripled from 79 when David Cameron came to power in 2010 to over 200. Anastasia de Waal, a social policy advisor for think tank Civitas, said, "The food banks are an indicator of the pressures faced by people in a time of rising unemployment and changing benefits."