Sabine Goodwin and Maria Marshall, Naomi Duncan and Ron Brewer respond to Gordon Brown’s article calling for companies to work with charities to ease the cost of living crisis for struggling families Gordon Brown says companies should collaborate with charities to respond to poverty this winter while surplus food is redistributed to help hungry families (The government has lost control of the cost of living crisis – here’s how businesses must step in, 16 November). Food banks are clear: a charitable response to poverty isn’t working. The latest data from the Department for Work and Pensions in ..read more

Janet Lewis and ​Trish Cockayne on a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that revealed how children are experiencing extreme poverty in Britain William Beveridge must be turning in his grave or weeping, or both (More than 1 million UK children experienced destitution last year, study finds, 24 October). In his 1942 report, he identified five key evils: idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want. Systems and services such as compulsory social insurance and comprehensive medical services were among those created or expanded in the 1940s to tackle these problems. They were to provide sup ..read more

Severe material hardship no longer a rarity, as study reveals impact of benefit cuts and cost of living crisis More than 1 million children experienced destitution last year – meaning their families could not afford to adequately feed, clothe or clean them, or keep them warm – according to a major study which reveals an explosion of extreme poverty in the UK. Severe material hardship was “no longer a rare occurrence”, the study found, with rates of destitution more than doubling in the last five years as a result of benefit cuts and cost of living pressures, leaving struggling households incre ..read more

We want to hear from people who are concerned about financial pressures when children are home from school Many schools in England and Wales break up for half-term next week, causing fears among parents and poverty researchers about the rise of holiday hunger. Households continue to suffer amid the cost of living crisis, with the consumer prices index including housing costs (CPIH) rising by 6.3% in the year to August 2023, according to Office for National Statistics inflation data ..read more

Labour’s frontbench is promising to tackle child poverty and to make work pay – just don’t mention the two-child benefit cap Here’s one dog that didn’t bark at Labour’s conference, amid the clapping and the sparkling. Only a few months ago, Keir Starmer’s refusal to pledge to reverse the two-child benefit cap – which tips hundreds of thousands of children into extreme poverty – was greeted with howls of pain and indignation. The shadow cabinet challenged him over it, and Meg Hillier, the chair of the public accounts committee, was among the many appalled Labour voices who objected. Why did he ..read more

The Very Rev Ian Black says the normalisation of food banks is a shame on our society Nesrine Malik asks if Labour is progressive or Tory-lite (Opinion, 8 October). She highlights how the cost of living crisis has morphed into the new normal, so no longer a crisis – but it’s worse than that. The question I have for Labour is, will it end food banks? This is not because I don’t care, but they are a shame on our society and we have become desensitised to their existence. They are even part of official strategy. When I moved from Leeds 11 years ago, there wasn’t a food bank. As I moved to Peterbo ..read more

The farm bill, which finances Snap benefits, must be renewed by Congress this year. A government shutdown threatens the process, as a rising number of Americans are going hungry With 1 October 2023 looming, a US government shutdown appears imminent, and the farm bill is set to expire. Members of both the House and Senate have been drafting proposals for its renewal, which happens every five years. The bill is responsible for financing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that many Americans rely on to feed their families. Though hunger prevention advocates are calling for Congr ..read more

After 30 years, I had to move – and I found myself plunged into a dog-eat-dog battle to find a home This article is part of the heat or eat diaries: a series from the frontline of Britain’s cost of living emergency After 30 years at my old flat, I’ve moved and it is wonderful. My old flat is where I brought my two children up and I do have happy memories of it, but it was also somewhere I felt trapped. It hadn’t been updated while I was there – when an estate agent came round to look at re-letting it, they said it wasn’t in a fit state – and I always felt embarrassed about inviting people ro ..read more

Headteachers say it is ‘unsustainable’ to expect schools to keep stepping in to support desperate families One in four teachers in England brought in food for hungry pupils out of concern for their welfare, a survey has revealed, as headteachers said it was “unsustainable” to expect schools to keep stepping in to support desperate families. Just days before the start of the new school term, more than a third (35%) of the 9,000 teachers who took part in the poll said their school regularly provided food for children and their families, rising to almost half in the most deprived areas of England ..read more

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