Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

What assessment her Department has made of trends in the number of people signposted or referred to food banks in areas where full service universal credit has been rolled out.

We have made no assessment of food bank use.

The reasons for food banks use are complex, so it’s wrong to attribute it to any one cause. The best way to help people improve their lives is through employment, and people on Universal Credit move into work faster and stay in work longer.