More than 9 million people, including one in five children, are in extreme poverty in the United Kingdom, struggling to feed themselves and meet their basic needs, according to the latest report from an NGO published on Wednesday.
A total of 14% of the population living in the United Kingdom faced hunger and deprivation at the end of March 2023, or one million more people than five years previously, according to this study by the Trussell Trust, a charity which runs a extensive network of food banks across the country.
The phenomenon particularly affects children, 20.9% of whom find themselves in this situation, as do a third of single-parent families and 28% of people from black, African and Caribbean minorities.
More than half of the 9.3 million people affected also live in a family with a member suffering from a disability, underlines Trussell Trust, which considers households whose available resources are, for example, 152 pounds (181 euros) to be in extreme poverty. ) per week for a single person, and 204 pounds (243 euros) per week for an adult with a child.
According to the Trussell Trust, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis which hit the country from 2022 due to the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, partly explain the worsening of the situation.
The organization indicates that it has distributed a record number of 3.1 million food parcels between April 2023 and March 2024, twice as many as five years earlier.
