FOODBANK users were living on less than £250 per month on average after housing costs as the country entered the pandemic, the Trussell Trust revealed today.

About 700,000 households used a foodbank in 2019-2020, the charity estimated.

It said it was unacceptable that foodbank users during that time were left to survive on an average of £248 per month to cover their bills, food and other essentials. 

Its State of Hunger 2021 report found that 95 per cent of those who needed help in early 2020 were living in destitution — unable to afford to eat and stay warm and dry.

More than six in 10 working-age people referred to a foodbank were disabled and single-parent families were also more likely to need help.

The shocking report prompted calls for the government to prioritise ending the need for foodbanks.

Trussell Trust head Emma Revie said: “People struggling in extreme poverty are pushed to the doors of foodbanks because they do not have enough money to survive.

“Hunger in the UK isn’t about food, it’s about people not being able to afford the basics.”

Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds warned that benefit payments were not sufficient for people to live on and were trapping families in a cycle of debt and destitution. 

“How can anyone be expected to live on less than £250 a month?”

“Instead of supporting families through this crisis the government wants to cut universal credit, pushing more people into poverty,” he said.

A government spokesman said it had spent billions more on welfare and is planning a “long-term route out of poverty” by protecting jobs.