Low pay is at root of food bank crisis

Foodbank manager and the co-founder of Eat or Heat Gary Nash is right to single out employers and politicians as being responsible for more than one million people going to foodbanks (Food bank manager to sell his home to finance the charity, July 2).
Lets not forget, this in one of the richest economies in the world, boasting more than 140 resident billionaires. 
The prime reasons for people going to foodbanks ar benefit problems and low pay. Take supermarkets, where we have the grotesque situation of some workers being paid so little that the food they stack on the shelves in the morning could be the same food that they go to pick up in the evening at the foodbank in order to keep their families afloat.
The foodbank economy reveals a side of welfare that is rarely discussed, namely the corporate variety - employers paying their workers so little that the tax payer has to make up the difference with tax credits. In UK plc today, this type of welfare for the rich is apparently perfectly acceptable.
If the number of people going to foodbanks is ever to reduce, then employers need to pay workers the living wage of £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 outside.
Trade union representation needs to be strengthened so that better pay can be achieved via collective bargaining agreements.
Finally, the benefits debacle overseen by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith needs to be sorted out and rebalanced in favour of supporting rather than punishing the individual.

see: Wanstead and Woodford Guardian - 9/7/2015