-
Claremont Gardens
Kingston food bank organiser criticises Iain Duncan Smith 'scaremongering' comments
'Scaremongering': Iain Duncan Smith's comments have been criticised by food bank organisers.
A Kingston food bank organiser has called it “a shame” Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith claimed his organisation is scaremongering about welfare changes. The food bank operates as part of the Trussell Trust, which Mr Duncan Smith has said uses “political messaging”. Paul Pickhaver, from the Surbiton Community Church, said: “I have no political agenda. Anyone who has tried to politicise [the food bank], I have been very firm with them.
The Trust’s chairman, Chris Mould, asked to meet the minister to discuss a link between changes to benefit payments and rising numbers of food bank visitors. Mr Duncan Smith wrote back denying the connection, The Times newspaper reported today.
Changes to benefits in Kingston, including a ‘cap’ on payments and a spare bedroom penalty, were introduced this year. Visitors to Kingston food bank recently include some who have gained seasonal work over Christmas, but need help because their pay packet will not arrive until the end of the month, Mr Pickhaver said.
By posting content on Surbiton.com, you agree to adhere to the following guidelines.
- Your username and password must only be used by you, keep them safe. If a posting is made using your username and password it will be considered to have been posted by you. If you have a friend who wants to use our site and post messages on the site, show them how to register.
- Be courteous at all times, inciting racial hatred, posting abusive, obscene, threatening, harassing, defamatory, libellous or sexually explicit material or any material that is found to be offensive is not acceptable and we may suspend your username and password.
- Retaliating to offensive posts causes more problems for other users on the discussion boards. Just report such messages to us using the Feedback link which is available at the top of every page or the 'report this' link associated with individual postings. We will act on every report we receive.
- Please respect other people's work and do not post material that infringes copyright.
- Do not post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law. You should only post material that you know to be public knowledge. If you have any doubts do not post it on the site.
- Never attempt to gain unauthorised access to any area of the site. This is known as hacking and is illegal.
- Content posted represents the opinions of the author, and does not represent the opinions of Surbiton.com or its affiliates and has not been approved or issued by Surbiton.com. You should be aware that the other participants are strangers to you and may make statements which may be misleading, deceptive or wrong.
- Spoofing or posing as another user is unacceptable. Anonymous users' postings should always be considered with suspicion.
- Help keep Surbiton.com a safe place for information and opinion. Please alert us of any anti-social behaviour as described above.
Surbiton.com 1998 - 2024
Comments
Post new comment