The Bevan Foundation has echoed concern about the rising numbers of people resorting to food banks because they have nothing to eat. The Western Mail reported that the Trussell Trust, which runs a network of foodbanks, found that in Wales the number using them between April and September 2013 increased threefold to 32,638 compared with 12,377 in the same period in 2012. Much of the increase has been blamed on welfare reform.
But in the Western Mail’s report, Professor Patrick Minford said that despite figures showing 4.6 people chasing every job – with the numbers rising to over 20 in some unemployment blackspots – welfare cuts are fair. He argued that:
“When there are more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available it’s important the market price of those jobs falls and wages fall. When wages fall there are more jobs created and so the excess supply gets eliminated and there is lower unemployment and more jobs.”
Director of the Bevan Foundation Dr Victoria Winckler responded that “starving people back to work” is not the answer and that market-driven solutions to unemployment showed no signs of working 30 years on. She said:
“It just hasn’t happened. There are still shortages of jobs in the places where there is high unemployment. ”