In 2024/25, approximately 2.9 million emergency food parcels were distributed from Trussell Trust food banks in the United Kingdom, compared with 3.1 million in 2023/24. There has been a steep rise in food bank usage in the UK, with a threefold increase in the number of parcels distributed in 2023/24, compared with 2014/15. As of the most recent year, there were over 1,700 Trussell Trust food bank distribution centers in the UK, compared with 1,500 in 2018/19. Cost of Living crisis continues Since late 2021, UK households have had to grapple with a steep rise in the cost of living. This crisis appeared to have peaked in 2022, when around 90 percent of households were reporting monthly increases to their living costs, and inflation reached a 40-year high of 11.1 percent in October 2022. Although inflation subsequently came down and wages began to outpace inflation from 2023 onward, prices remain far higher than before the crisis began. Furthermore, the first half of 2025 has seen an uptick in inflation, which, although expected to subside towards the end of the year, has piled further misery on struggling UK households. Growing discontent with political mainstream After one year in power, the current Labour government is almost as unpopular as the Conservative government they replaced, which suffered one of their worst results in their history at the last election. To deal with the UK's precarious public finances without significant tax rises, Labour have attempted to make reforms to welfare, such as cutting the winter fuel allowances for all but the poorest pensioners. This cut in particular was so unpopular that Labour reinstated it for most pensioners, with further attempts at welfare reform also hitting a roadblock. These events, along with a stuttering economy, have seen Labour fall significantly at the polls, especially at the expense of the right-wing Reform Party, who have generally led the polls since the start of the year.

In 2024/25 there were 1,711 food bank distribution centers run by the UK's main food bank distributor, the Trussell Trust, compared with 1,703 in the previous year. In this year, over 2.89 million parcels were distributed, compared with 3.13 million in the previous year.

In 2024/25, there were ******* food bank parcels distributed in London, the region with the highest number of food parcels distributed in that period.

In 2024/25, over ******* people used a food bank in London, an when compared to the previous year. Food bank use in London has steadily climbed recently, with 108,370 users recorded in 2014/15.

In 2023/24, approximately **** percent of households in the United Kingdom that had a weekly income of less than 200 British pounds reported using a food bank in the last 12 months, compared with *** percent of households that earned more than 1,000 pounds per week.

The Trussell Trust has commissioned 'Hunger in the UK', a multi-year large-scale quantitative and qualitative research project to help support their strategic vision of ending the need for food banks. The Trussell Trust has appointed Ipsos Mori to deliver this research. The project focuses on three elements, each intended to build on existing evidence from research that the Trussell Trust had previously commissioned:

1. Exploring the life experiences and socio-demographics of people referred to food banks in the Trussell Trust network through quantitative research. This study includes a survey of people referred to food banks in the Trussell Trust network. The survey collected a broad range of demographic and socioeconomic status information at both the individual and household level.

2. A survey of the general population of the United Kingdom to establish benchmarks of, and track over time, the level of destitution, food-aid use, and food insecurity amongst this population. This survey mirrors the survey of people referred to food banks, thereby allowing for a comparative analysis of both populations.

3. Qualitative research with people experiencing food insecurity and destitution to understand their lived experience and enrich understanding of the drivers of food bank use and the impact on individuals and families.*

*Currently, this study includes only the survey data from elements 1. and 2. of the project.

The research aims to contribute to the Trussell Trust’s goal of ending the need for food banks across the UK by providing evidence on the drivers of food insecurity and the need to receive support from a food bank. It allows exploration of the groups of people who are more likely to need support, how these experiences differ across the countries of the United Kingdom and what factors may allow people to escape food insecurity.

Further information may be found on The Trussell Trust's Hunger in the UK webpage.

The survey aimed to gather data on the impact of the COVID19 outbreak on the food support providers active in Greater Manchester. The lockdown created organizational hurdles to many services providing food to the most vulnerable. The survey explored more in depth the obstacles, the needs and the prospects of 55 organizations that were on the frontline in the first months of the crisis.

In the United Kingdom food banks are increasingly required to alleviate hunger and food insecurity. In Greater Manchester (GM) alone, the GM Poverty Alliance mapped 171 emergency food providers. While the renewed interest of social scientists in the topic has produced an abundance of scientific literature, there remains a lack of knowledge on the webs of influence, support, conflict and interdependence between families experiencing food poverty and the emergency food providers. Project HUNG, by embracing a relational approach, focuses on the space of relations occupied by actors and institutions engaged with one another. Thereby, it proposes a relational object of analysis: not food poverty or food banks per se, but rather the interactions and transactions involved in the process of charitable supply and food demand. The project, based on the GM metropolitan county, makes use of quantitative analysis and ethnography of the everyday life to throw light on the "hunger bonds" connecting emergency providers and their users. On the one side, by gathering original survey data on food banks and their users, it provides a descriptive analysis on the determinants of food bank use through a dataset suitable for multilevel modelling (individuals nested in food banks). On the other side, it offers an in-depth ethnography of the daily life of a small sample of families that frequently rely on food banks by shadowing their meal choices for a prolonged period of time. By doing so, HUNG creates twofold added-value for the research community and for policy makers. Scholars nterested in food inequalities will have access to a ethodological toolkit, that could be used to extend research in other metropolitan domains. Simultaneously, by describing in detail the determinants of food bank use, it will improve the capability of agencies fighting food poverty to influence public policies to end food poverty.

The Family Resources Survey (FRS) has been running continuously since 1992 to meet the information needs of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It is almost wholly funded by DWP.

The FRS collects information from a large, and representative sample of private households in the United Kingdom (prior to 2002, it covered Great Britain only). The interview year runs from April to March.

The focus of the survey is on income, and how much comes from the many possible sources (such as employee earnings, self-employed earnings or profits from businesses, and dividends; individual pensions; state benefits, including Universal Credit and the State Pension; and other sources such as savings and investments). Specific items of expenditure, such as rent or mortgage, Council Tax and water bills, are also covered.

Many other topics are covered and the dataset has a very wide range of personal characteristics, at the adult or child, family and then household levels. These include education, caring, childcare and disability. The dataset also captures material deprivation, household food security and (new for 2021/22) household food bank usage.

The FRS is a national statistic whose results are published on the gov.uk website. It is also possible to create your own tables from FRS data, using DWP’s Stat Xplore tool. Further information can be found on the gov.uk Family Resources Survey webpage.

Secure Access FRS data
In addition to the standard End User Licence (EUL) version, Secure Access datasets, containing unrounded data and additional variables, are also available for FRS from 2005/06 onwards - see SN 9256. Prospective users of the Secure Access version of the FRS will need to fulfil additional requirements beyond those associated with the EUL datasets. Full details of the application requirements are available from http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/178323/secure_frs_application_guidance.pdf" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Guidance on applying for the Family Resources Survey: Secure Access.

FRS, HBAI and PI
The FRS underpins the related Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset, which focuses on poverty in the UK, and the related Pensioners' Incomes (PI) dataset. The EUL versions of HBAI and PI are held under SNs 5828 and 8503, respectively. The Secure Access versions are held under SN 7196 and 9257 (see above).

FRS 2023-24

Alongside the usual topics covered, the 2023-2024 FRS includes new variables on veterans (ex-armed forces, former regulars and reserves); care leavers (where young adults were previously living in care, during their teenage years); and, for the self-employed, length of time in that occupation. For doctors, we add clarifying variables for NHS vs private earnings streams. There are new variables on food support from friends/relatives, which complement the existing food bank and household food security set. 2023-2024 also includes Cost of Living Payment variables, including those on certain state benefits and the Warm Homes Discount scheme.

The achieved sample was over 16,500 households (28,500+ adults). A large majority of interviews were face-to-face with a minority being by telephone.

The BENUNIT table contains a raft of variables on the new material deprivation question set; see GOV.UK for background.

This version of the dataset (End User Licence) adds the DEBT table for the first time this year. The table contains responses on credit card debt, loan debt, hire purchase debt and store card debt.

Please send any feedback directly to the FRS Team Inbox: team.frs@dwp.gov.uk

Documentation

Many variables in the data files are fully labelled, but additional details can be found in the frs2324_variable_listing_eul.xlsx document.