Over 9 million people including one in five kids face hunger and hardship in UK

A report by charity the Trussell Trust found 6.3million adults and three million children are living well below the poverty line as experts called for a shake-up in the benefit system

A record 9.3 million people - including one in five children - are facing hunger and hardship in the UK, grim analysis shows.

Data from charity the Trussell Trust showed 6.3 million adults and three million children were living well below the poverty line in the year to March 2023. This is up by a massive 580,000 from the previous year as families grapple with the cost of living crisis.

The figure has surged by one million in five years and is the highest since comparable records began in 2000, the trust said. One in seven people, and one in seven children, faced hunger and hardship, researchers found.

The charity warned that without urgent Government action a further 425,000 people - including 170,000 children - will be struggling in poverty and hunger by 2026/27.

It called for a Universal Credit shake-up to include a guarantee to ensure payments always cover the cost of essentials. This would mean almost two million faced the risk of hunger and hardship in the next two years, experts said.

The trust also said scrapping the controversial two-child limit and benefit cap would lift 570,000 away from this. Rajun, who took part in the research, described his struggles making ends meet.

He said: "I definitely have cut down on food and that’s not because I’m not hungry but because it’s important for me to prioritise my wife and daughter. " And fellow participant Charlotte said: "You have no room to manoeuvre, you barely have enough to live month-to-month and certainly no possibility of saving and any contingency. If things go wrong, there is no way to solve them."

Helen Barnard, director of policy, research and impact at the Trussell Trust, said: “This research highlights the shocking reality that 1 in 7 people in the UK are facing hunger and hardship – that is a million more people than five years ago. This should not be the case in one of the richest countries in the world.

She continued: "People are turning to food banks because they don’t have enough money to live on. But we know it doesn’t have to be this way. This research shows that solutions are available for the UK government to make real inroads in tackling hunger and hardship. "

Measures include a minimum floor in Universal Credit levels and uprating Local Housing Allowance in line with affordable rents on a claimant's area. The Government was also urged to halt plans to rollback support for disabled people by tightening the Work Capability Assessment.