More than 14 million people are facing hunger in the UK, a major new report has revealed, with 3.8 million children at risk of running out of food.
The research by Trussell shows that there has been a rise in food insecurity since 2022 – when it last carried out a similar survey – with the number of people facing hunger rising from 11.6 million to 14.1.
Taken in mid-2024, the results also show that over a quarter of all children (27 per cent) are now facing hunger, up from 23 per cent. Trussell says the situation has only gotten worse in the year since the general election, as it urges Labour to do more to tackle financial insecurity.
The data shows a “stark geographic inequality”, researchers find, with households in the most deprived areas three times as likely to be facing hunger than those in the least deprived (27 per cent vs 9 per cent).
On a regional and national level, there were also key differences between areas. The area with the highest proportion of households in food insecurity was the North West, at over a quarter of all people (26 per cent).
This was followed by the North East (23 per cent) and Northern Ireland (21 per cent).
The report also found that:
- Around three in 10 (31 per cent) children 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
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.”
To tackle the growing issue, Trussell has urged the government to drop the Conservative-era two-child benefit cap, which prevents parents from claiming universal credit or tax credit for three or more children.
Its research shows that over two in five families (42 per cent) with three or more children experienced food insecurity, more than twice the rate of families with two children (20 per cent).
The charity also calls for action to tackle low-income work, inadequate benefit coverage, and an end to the freeze on local housing allowance, which caps the rate at which housing benefits can be paid despite rising rents.
Left-wing Labour MP Kim Johnson said: “This research should shame the government to its core. Behind the headline figure are working families, children, pensioners, and disabled people forced to rely on food banks just to survive. This isn’t about personal choices – it’s about political choices. Hunger is a scandalous political failure, not an inevitability.
“Years of austerity, insecure work, stagnant wages and a broken welfare system have pushed millions into hardship while the wealthy few continue to thrive. People deserve dignity, not destitution. Hunger in Britain is a political choice – and it’s one we must firmly reject.”
