Hunger crisis grips UK as 14 million go without food

Britain is facing a deepening hunger crisis with more than 14 million people going without food because they can’t afford it, shocking new analysis has revealed.

- ALBERT TOTH

A total of 3.8 million children (27 per cent) are among those estimated to be living in homes where people are forced to skip or cut back on meals because of financial concerns, a report by the food bank network Trussell has found.

The figures show a stark rise from the same report in 2022 – when 11.6 million were facing hunger – and lays bare the growing cost of living crisis gripping Britain.

Experts behind the research blamed the crisis on low incomes, insufficient benefit rates, rising rents and soaring energy bills as they warned that the situation was only getting worse and urged Labour to take swift action, including by ending the two-child benefit cap.

Politicians and campaigners hit out at the findings, describing hunger as “a scandalous political failure” and saying that the research should “shame the government to its core”.

Helen Barnard, director of policy, research and impact at Trussell, said: “Hunger and hardship are increasingly seen as a normal part of everyday life in the UK. This is not an inevitable trend, but the result of systems that urgently need updating.”

The report also found that:

Around three in 10 children (31 per cent) aged five and under are living in households facing hunger

Nearly three in 10 households (30 per cent) using food banks are in working families, showing that “paid employment no longer protects people from hardship”

More than a quarter of private renters (28 per cent) suffered food insecurity in 2024, rising to 44 per cent of people living in social rented housing. For homeowners, the rate drops to 8 per cent