BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Why are we waiting? The five-week wait for Universal Credit and food insecurity among food sector workers in the UK

    Richards-Gray, Laura (2024) Why are we waiting? The five-week wait for Universal Credit and food insecurity among food sector workers in the UK. Journal of Poverty , ISSN 1087-5549.

    [img] Text
    Why are We Waiting_The Five-Week Wait for Universal Credit and Food Insecurity Among Food Sector Workers in the UK.pdf - Author's Accepted Manuscript
    Restricted to Repository staff only
    Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

    Download (408kB)
    [img]
    Preview
    Text
    54232a.pdf - Published Version of Record
    Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

    Download (413kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    The UK’s new social security benefit, Universal Credit, is driving up food insecurity. Particularly problematic is the five-week wait for the first payment. Meanwhile, low wages and insecure contracts mean many food sector workers rely on Universal Credit. This qualitative study explores the effects of the five-week wait on food security among these workers. The findings show this is forcing them to depend on family, friends and foodbanks, inducing shame and isolation, and negatively impacting their physical and mental health. Meanwhile, working in the food sector offers little or no protection from these effects and, in some cases, exacerbates them.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
    Depositing User: Laura Richards-Gray
    Date Deposited: 06 Sep 2024 15:37
    Last Modified: 06 Sep 2024 21:14
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/54232

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    11Downloads
    6 month trend
    48Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item
    Edit/View Item