Falkirk Food Bank charity welcomes Holyrood's calls for an 'Essentials Guarantee'

As part of the Programme for Government 2023 to 2024, MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville, Scottish cabinet secretary for social justice, stated: “We are calling on the UK

Government to legislate to put an Essentials Guarantee in place to adequately cover the cost of essentials, including food, transport, energy and to ensure that deductions, such as debt repayments to government, sanctions,

or as a result of the benefit cap, can never pull support below this level."

The Trussell Trust, which operates food banks in Falkirk and throughout the UK, says the move could lead to the welcome sight of food banks closing their doors for good, as their services would no longer be required.

Polly Jones, Head of Scotland at the Trussell Trust, said: “Food banks are seeing record numbers of people on the lowest incomes pushed to their doors, with almost 300,000 emergency food parcels distributed by Trussell Trust food banks in Scotland in the last year as people face hardship.

"By endorsing the introduction of an Essentials Guarantee in the Programme for Government, the Scottish Government has shown the ambition for ending the need for

food banks that we want to see replicated in Westminster.

“Currently, 72 per cent of people referred to food banks in our network in Scotland are in receipt of Universal Credit. The introduction of an essentials guarantee could

move the country towards closing the doors of food banks for good.”