‘Workers using foodbanks’: the embedding of food insecurity at the nexus of welfare and employment laws



Hayes, LJB ORCID: 0000-0003-4602-9194 and Maynard, Naomi
(2024) ‘Workers using foodbanks’: the embedding of food insecurity at the nexus of welfare and employment laws. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 32 (3). pp. 318-342. ISSN 1759-8273, 1759-8281

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Abstract

<jats:p>In this first UK study of ‘Workers using foodbanks’, 65 per cent of research participants, including 76 per cent of those of working age, identified poor-quality employment as the root cause of their food insecurity. This primary problem of the deficient quality of jobs was characterised by insecure work, low wages, and excessive mental stress. Data revealed an environment in which workers are required to claim benefits because available employment cannot sustain their needs. A contemporary generation of ‘in-and-out-of-work[ers]’ are food insecure because of a secondary problem of inadequate welfare support. Post-pandemic welfare laws are interacting with ineffective employment rights protection to scaffold a low-wage labour market in which jobs are stripped of qualities that meet workers’ basic needs. There is an urgent need to respond to the UKs record high incidence of food insecurity by improving the quality of available employment so that all jobs deliver adequate income, security of working arrangements, and support for good mental and physical health. ‘Workers using foodbanks’ is an aphorism that captures a contemporary reality in which the risk of food insecurity is embedded in contractual arrangements for work that are forged at the nexus of welfare and employment laws.</jats:p>

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: 4404 Development Studies, 4407 Policy and Administration, 44 Human Society, Social Determinants of Health, Behavioral and Social Science, 2 Zero Hunger, 3 Good Health and Well Being
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 16 Jul 2024 10:37
Last Modified: 08 Dec 2024 00:58
DOI: 10.1332/17598273y2024d000000026
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3182911