Seeking an essentials guarantee
On Wednesday 18th June, two of us from Exeter Foodbank had the privilege of gathering with approximately 700 people from foodbanks across the country at Westminster to lobby our MPs about the #essentialsguarantee.
We are asking our MPs to raise the basic rate of Universal Credit from approximately £92 per week for an adult to £120 – or £205 for a couple. This amount would cover the essential items that a person needs to live. We are then asking that this amount should then increase in line with inflation, so that nobody in the future will be unable to buy the essential items that they need.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation have explained a basic weekly budget on this page: essentialsguarantee
Lobby Day itself was incredibly powerful.
It was amazing to see the passion and dedication that the staff from Trussell and the teams from the foodbanks brought. Across the country, every week, we all are involved in giving out emergency food items – but we know that the thing that would make the real difference is an essentials guarantee. This would provide millions of people with enough money to live on; it would mean that not nearly as many households would need to attend foodbanks.
In my view, this is the big change that we need to see. It would not fix everything. But it would make a really significant difference.
Our MP, Steve Race, gave us a full hour of his time. We discussed the essentials guarantee and some of the issues that lead people to need help from a foodbank. We are grateful to Steve for his time and understanding of what we were doing.
In the weeks prior to Lobby Day, we had asked our clients, volunteers and some of our referral partners across the city to contribute to a collection of stories about what living on Universal Credit is like. On June 18th we presented Steve with a copy of our book ‘Experiences of Universal Credit in 2025’. Some of the stories in this book are heartbreaking. Steve has promised to read this book and discuss it with some of his colleagues. He has also said that he will visit us at our main venue in Cowick Street to talk to our Advice Services Coordinator and our CA Advisor to hear some of the issues that people have been seeking help for.
One story from our book is written by a parent who goes without food for five days at a time so that their children can eat. Another comment from a foodbank client says how they feel like ‘a waste of space’ living on Universal Credit. It is not an easy read. You can almost feel the pain on each page. We are so grateful to our clients for sharing their experience with us. They were so keen to add their story so that other people may have a better future.
Something really brought this all home to me on the journey back to Exeter. Unfortunately, I lost my phone. Not only was this very annoying and led to a whole load calls to the network provider and then changing lots of passwords – but it made me realise just how difficult it is to fully participate in life if you do not have the necessary resources. In the last week I have had problems accessing my bank, my insurance company and getting repeat prescriptions from my GP. We do all of these things via apps nowadays. The essentials guarantee includes a small budget for communications. It is difficult to cope without this – and if you are on UC, then you need to update your DWP journals online too.
Not having the budget to do things like this causes huge problems for people. This is why it is so important.
Once someone begins to financially struggle, the issues around debt and feeling isolated can become overwhelming. It can take a significant amount of effort to financially recover from a crisis moment, because we cannot afford to miss a single step in the middle of this cost-of-living crisis. And this is why an essentials guarantee matters.
We must invest in people. Ultimately this is what we are asking for. We are trying to ensure that our neighbours are able to participate in life, have aspirations, keep outward looking and be socially connected. Because every day of the week, at foodbanks across the country, we see the evidence of what happens when this is not their experience.
The most heartbreaking story that I heard on the day was the gentleman who lived on a diet of ‘own-brand’ Custard Creams for several weeks. He could not afford anything else, so he lived on biscuits for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day as he was recovering from pneumonia. This was the largest amount of food that he could get for his money.
We need an essentials guarantee.
While two of us travelled up to Westminster, I did feel that we took the voices of many people in community. If you support an essentials guarantee too, you can get involved in the campaign in several ways: essentialsguarantee-getinvolved
Thank you for your support,
Mark
Exeter Foodbank
