Banking on Benefits

'I've got a gentlemen I'd like to refer for a food parcel.'

There are 45 food banks in Wales, and three more are about to open.

I've no money since I've finished work.

And it's just a pain in the arse.

Last year, they distributed over 80,000 food parcels across Wales.

-Cereal, spaghetti, soup... Can you manage?

-Yeah.

At least 4,000 of those were given out in Rhyl.

Milk, good, I like milk.

Thanks to you guys you've saved us, really. We would be starved, really.

Do you know what I mean? Thanks to you guys.

We are going to pray for the team that are distributing

the food for the King's Store House.

Oh, have I got the right number for Dean?

Have a look at the flats, they've got damp walls

and mushrooms growing on them, water leaking in...

If they've had their benefits suspended or sanctioned,

then we are ready to get involved.

A basic safety net that was there to guarantee that people

would not be left in hunger or in destitution

has actually been torn apart.

Welfare reform is fundamentally,

and it must fundamentally be about opportunity and life change.

Their mental health is certainly suffering

because they're more stressed about being sanctioned than anything else.

More than a quarter of Rhyl's working age population

claims out of work benefits.

In one neighbourhood, Rhyl West, it's as high as 67%.

It wasn't always like this.

Rhyl was a proud town.

A leading UK tourist attraction.

It employed thousands in hotels, arcades, and funfairs.

It's all gone.

Rhyl Pier is demolished.

Ocean Beach Amusement Park, closed.

Plans to build a retail and leisure complex, postponed.

18 hotels on Rhyl West Parade, shut.

A large share of this accommodation has been bought up

by private landlords and converted into houses in multiple occupation.

This is typically cheap and very poor quality.

Houses like these are only attractive to those

on very low incomes, dependent on welfare.

We've got a piece of bread, a bit of cheese, little piece of ham.

And for those who are dependent on benefits,

the food bank is how they survive.

We fed a couple who had worked all their lives, both of them.

And they had both been made redundant at the same time.

If they've had their benefits suspended or sanctioned

then we are ready to get involved.

Sarah and Dave Jones run the King's Store Food Bank in Rhyl.

They do it in their spare time.

She is a company director, and he's a mental health support worker.

Unlike other food bank volunteers,

instead of expecting people to come to a central pick up,

they take the food to the people.

-Somebody called Anne Powys?

-Yeah.

-That's me.

I've had no money since I finished work,

and it's just a pain in the arse.

'Anne has worked as a cleaner at Pontins Holiday Park

'for the past seven years.

'It's seasonal work.

'In the past, during the period she's not working,

'Anne's been able to claim benefits.

'Not this year. They've been stopped.'

I've been signed on since 18th of November

and I've had no money or nothing. I got no electric, no gas, nothing.

-Nothing at all?

-Nope.

-So you have got no electric or gas now?

-Nope.

-So how are you going to cook this food?

A friend of mine, just lives in a block here.

If I need anything cooked, I just go round his to cook it,

because he's a friend of mine, so he lets me cook it round his.

So he's a good fellow, isn't he?

Anne's been refused benefits

because she worked too many hours in her seasonal job last year.

-That is the most saddest thing I've ever seen in my life.

-What?

-Her crying like that.

-And she works. She pays her taxes.

That is so... How can you... It's so heartbreaking, isn't it?

You don't know what to say, do you? That is... Oh, I don't know.

'Her loss of benefits has left Anne dependent on food banks.'

Dog food, milk...good, I like milk.

And pasta as well.

Is it all stuff that you can eat?

Yeah, plenty.

Yeah, because I can make meals out of most of these.

I'm quite a good cook as well, see?

-Thanks very much.

-OK, see you again.

-Yeah, see you again.

-Don't forget you've got our number.

# Holy, holy, holy

# The smile of God almighty, you are the... #

The food bank is run out of an evangelical church in Rhyl.

About 18/19 months, when we started

the King's Storehouse Food Bank...

..I remember saying to Sarah, well, look, let's keep it small

and lets grow with it.

And, um, it ended up with,

I think they call it a Facebook page, whatever that is.

And we're just experiencing the goodness of people

and the blessing of God.

Apart from the generosity of Mike's congregation,

it's the local people that donate the food.

# And I will adore you. #

You won't believe it,

we could run out of food like we ran out of eggs last week.

And just out the blue a lady knocked on the door to say

that her chickens had gone bananas all weekend,

and she brought us 30 eggs.

So, no, we never run out.

The food bank also relies heavily on food bins placed around the town.

Might as well carry it to the car, yeah?

There we are.

What we've got to be careful of when we get these donations

is the dates on the tin, really.

There you are. That's something disgusting, isn't it?

Somebody has thrown their chewing gum in there.

-Not going to be donating that to the food bank.

-No.

Donations come from all local sources

and nothing is refused.

Even mince pies in March.

Thank you, wonderful.

There's three boxes for you.

Amazing. I'll have to take the trolley out.

And there'll be some more, so I'll get in touch with you next time.

Thank you, you've got Sarah's number, haven't you?

How many mince pies has he got there, then?

There's 120 in each box.

Wow, 360 mince pies.

And while Mike stocks up,

Dave and Sarah are out distributing.

This is some people we have met.

She's severely diabetic so she collapsed, basically,

because she hadn't been eating.

So we were able to help her with her food situation.

The couple are embarrassed about their living conditions,

and have asked not to be filmed.

It's emergency accommodation

but they're still paying £100 a week for this kind of thing.

She has to... If you have a look at the towels on here,

they are absolutely soaking wet.

If you felt them yourself, they're soaked.

Water is running in and she has to mop all this every morning.

Now, he works full-time

and she's in college,

so, you know, they are not benefit scroungers

or anything like that, like people would probably say to me.

He actually does a full-time job.

The call originally came from the benefits advice shop,

and the chap that rang us, to be fair,

he was quite upset because she was seriously ill.

The next referral comes via the local MP.

I'm close to tears, somebody needs to come and see this.

This place is not fit for a squatter.

You need to come and see it.

I'm choked. I'm trying not to cry to show myself up here.

I'm ringing you by a window because he's got no electric.

He can't afford to put the electric on

and it's absolutely black in here.

I can understand now, when he told me last night he wants to go

in a tent with his dog

because the tent is more palatial than this place.

One part of Damien's benefits has just been stopped

because he hasn't convinced the authorities

he's actively looking for work.

Apart from his housing benefit, he has nothing else to live on.

I've already worked out that if I end up on the streets

I'd be £90 a fortnight better off.

And, it's obvious, a lot safer, as well.

And there's not the damp I have to worry about,

there's not the break-ins I have to worry about.

I'm £90 better off, as well.

How much are you paying for this place now?

£80 a week.

That's not including, like, £40 a week electric.

And how much a week do you get in total?

I get £71-something off the Jobseeker's Allowance a week.

Yeah, that's nearly the whole money gone.

How do you live, Damien?

I don't really, I just survive.

Oh... How do you explain people on benefits?

I think it's... I just see it's probably in two categories.

You've got those who deserve to be on benefits and have no other way.

There's those who choose to be on benefits.

Sadly, we have people who are so bone idle

that they not interested in getting a job,

so I agree with the government where we've got to stop

this massive amount of money that we pay out on benefits.

However, by just stopping the benefits,

it hits those who are genuinely being hurt.

-All right, so you left him in there?

-Yeah.

You discussed everything except food in there. Has he got any food?

He can't afford to cook it.

That's... I'm going to come back I think with some bread,

cereal, milk, and tinned ham.

Because, like he said, his electricity is £20 a unit,

erm, 20p a unit,

and to cook £1 Fray Bentos pie

it takes £3 out of his meter.

He's got no gas cooker but he quite obviously said

he couldn't afford gas, really.

Cos he's just such on a tight budget.

We try to find out whether they are truly in need of benefits.

We had one guy who phoned me and I asked him about his benefits

and he was getting...

I think it was £200 or £300 a week and he told me that.

So I said, "Where is your money?"

And he had bought a hi-fi for his car.

And I sort of laughed in disbelief and said,

"Look, you spend that money on a hi-fi,

"we're not here just to pay your food bill

"because you think a hi-fi is your main priority."

So we refuse to help.

Our responsibility is to try to meet people's needs,

not to encourage them to rely on us

or not to encourage them to develop bad spending habits.

Better make sure the car's locked.

It's a bit of a dodgy area, we don't want all our food stolen.

Sarah's back at Damien's house.

THEY MURMUR

You've got bread...

beef slices...

stuff you can cook... stuff you can eat

without needing a cooker, basically.

Obviously, you can't boil the kettle for your soups

but will you get some electric at some point?

Don't know how much electric I'll get, probably about a tenner.

That'll last me about two days.

Costs about £5 a day.

And how do you get the electric in here? Is it on a card meter?

Yeah, I buy them straight off the landlord,

but the landlord leaves some electric cards with the woman next door

so I can buy them off her if it's too late or if he's not around.

And has she got any electric cards now?

-She should have, yeah.

-I can't leave him like this.

Well, go and get some, yeah, we best get you some electric, then.

Is she in now?

-Possibly.

-Could she sell me £10 worth of electric?

Damien is just one of 41,000 benefit sanctions

which took place in Wales last year.

Another person affected is Anne.

-You actually needed help immediately from the food bank?

-Yeah.

Having lived on nothing for three months,

seasonal worker, Anne, has just been given an emergency payment.

When you came in that day

-you were really emotionally very bad, weren't you?

-Yep.

And I felt very concerned for your safety at that point.

So, we discussed going to the doctors on an emergency appointment

-and you agreed, didn't you?

-Yep.

So you went to the doctors, you got a fit note, came back,

and we did an immediate claim

-for employment and support allowance.

-Yeah.

Even though she's received some help,

Anne only has £52 in her bank account.

I try and put a brave face on everything, but...

I try my best, that's all I can do.

She's had a breakdown with what she's gone through,

and it's going to take time... time to get back her equilibrium.

It's quite worrying that as a holiday area that people

may not choose to go into the seasonal work any more

if this is what's going to happen to them.

The referrals Dave and Sarah deal with change daily.

-You all right, Cameron?

-You all right, mate?

-Where do you want it?

Just on the bed, please.

What is this a hotel, or a bedsit, or a homeless shelter?

-Homeless.

-Yeah.

How long have you been here?

Quite a while now.

Well, say about four months ago is when I first came here.

And then they stopped my housing benefits.

-And then I was in the night shelter after that.

-OK.

So then, after that, they put me back here for the moment.

Denbighshire has.

OK, are you...you don't work, no?

-No.

-No, OK, are you looking for work?

-Not at the moment no. I'm on the sick.

-Ah, right, OK.

How long have you been on the sick?

-About four or five months.

-Oh, yeah?

What's wrong?

-Alcohol, it is. I'm alcohol dependent.

-Are you?

You're only young though, aren't you?

-Rum... Blimey!

-How old are you, Cameron?

-20.

-How many bottles would you go through those a day?

-About 1.5 of them.

-1.5?

-A day?

We'll always give to alcoholics, and we'll give to drug addicts

and I learned a big lesson...

Even though they're spending the money on other stuff?

Well, I think... I mean, we'd need to look into it,

but when we first started,

I was not prepared to give money to drug addicts,

and I remember having a conversation with a lovely lady in Rhyl

based at the Dewi Sant Centre, called Ruth.

And I was talking to Ruth about, you know,

if we are going to give them food,

all they are going to do is buy drugs and we end up paying their food bill.

And she looked at me and she said,

"Mike let me tell you something,

"with drug addicts their first responsibility is to buy drugs.

"What you're doing is keeping them alive,

"giving somebody a chance to work with them."

And that really changed the way that I think.

He's been evicted, if I can help it.

-Having drug addicts and

-BLEEP

-there everyday.

-Put that on your

-BLEEP

-news.

55-year-old Stephen is an alcoholic and has next to nothing to eat.

What have we got in the fridge?

There's nothing in the fridge.

He's got... It looks like a piece of bread, bit of cheese,

little piece of ham, little bit of milk.

They weren't very happy, was she, when we came in?

No, she wasn't no.

She thought it was drug addicts and alcoholics coming round, so...

No, they're only mates, they're not druggies, no.

You know, they don't come every day, only when I, you know...

I do get a bit lonely, but I do have to be careful who I let in, you see?

-Have you not met your neighbour yet, then?

-Yeah, spoke to her.

-The woman next door.

-Oh, on that side?

-No, this side.

-No, I haven't really spoke to that lady.

Haven't spoke to that lady, then?

No. I think they've got a couple of babies in there

but I don't make a noise or anything.

Well, to be honest, I'm a little bit annoyed

that we took a food parcel there,

because, you know, we're feeding people that have got nothing.

And quite rightly so, he had nothing.

But until we've got in there and seen

that he's got three bottles cider on the floor is a shade annoying.

HE MUMBLES

Accompanying every food parcel is an invitation

to attend Pastor Mike's church.

Not everybody takes it up, but Damien has.

Welcome, Damien, for the first time.

So we are going to carry on.

Mike started last week, doing characters from the Bible.

So today, I've told everyone, Mike, that it's Jacob,

so I hope that it is!

I reckon he had these big wild eyebrows,

a bit like, who was that politician that had those big eyebrows?

-Denis Healey?

-Denis Healey!

I don't believe in God, but I don't not believe in God either.

You see, when it boils down to it, I don't really know what to believe,

because I've seen so much in my life.

I think it's safe to say that he's an atheist,

and, yeah, I love atheists!

And the thing is God loves atheists,

and for me it's not particularly important does he believes in God.

What's more important is that God believes in him.

God might well believe in him, but the Job Centre doesn't.

"Dear Mr Jones, a doubt has arisen on your claim for Jobseeker's Allowance,

"as it appears that from 11 January to the 24th January 2014,

"you may not have taken sufficient or appropriate steps to find work."

This is like the sixth time I've been sanctioned in a row now.

It's always the same thing every time,

that I am not doing enough effort to look for work.

I'm not participating in this, I'm not doing that, all the time.

And the more I do, the worse it seems to get, as well.

So when your Jobseeker's Allowance gets stopped,

that means...?

-I have no money at all.

-Nothing at all?

-No.

How do they expect you to live?

It's not their problem. I've asked them that before

and that's exactly what they tell me. It's not their problem.

You've got two new computers.

They are not new, they're all built by myself.

-You built these computers?

-Yeah.

Could you fix any computer?

Yeah, pretty much. And laptops and phones as well.

Phones are just mini computers to me, they all work the same.

Why are you not working, Damien, if you've got these skills?

Why are you not putting them to good use?

That's why I'm seeing her on Wednesday,

to see if I can start my own business doing it.

He may want to start his own business,

but the job centre wants him to get a job, any job.

Problem is, with local unemployment so high,

the chances of finding one are slim, and he's choosey.

But Anne isn't, and she's trying hard to find one.

It's something to do with cleaning because I'm fully qualified for it.

Keep my fingers crossed I can get it.

It'd be nice, but I don't know yet. I've got to wait and see.

Just I've been busy everywhere today.

Now, last time I saw you, you were crying.

Yeah, I know, cos I was crying cos of things going on with the Social

and things like that, but at the end of the day,

I went to Open Doors and things are looking a bit, bit better.

It's just so annoying when I've got no money or anything.

-It's so annoying.

-So you haven't got a penny?

Nope, not a penny at all. Not one penny at all. Nothing.

Anne's already had two food parcels.

Today, she depends on her neighbour to eat.

What he's doing, it's a mince dinner and it's absolutely gorgeous.

He always does it, and it's really nice.

I have rice and naan bread with it.

Don't we, don't we, Danny?

The pressure on trying to feed those

that might be slipping through the net are growing.

You guys are working probably seven days.

Now, I know you're a big guy, but I'm bigger.

And I know you are going to argue with me

that you're not doing too much. I'm telling you, you are.

Because, if you end up burnt out

because you're constantly out serving the needs of others,

that's going to be no use to us when you burn out.

The second thing, and when my dad was alive,

he talked to me about the same thing is...

You can be so involved that eventually

it'll wreck your marriage.

And that's a reality that we've got to look at, I've got to look.

And I've got to look at for people who are involved

in all the various departments in the church.

Damien's being evicted.

His loss of benefits means he can't afford to top up his rent.

Yeah, hiya, we've arrived here to help Damien with the move.

The landlord's been here,

and he's just given us a couple of hours to do it,

so I really need all hands on deck, please.

If anybody...you could get anybody to give us a hand.

His new flat isn't big enough for all his furniture.

Some of it is only fit for landfill...

..so it's being thrown out.

I'm sorry, Riley, I'm sorry.

Moving to a new place now, eh?

No, get your snout out.

It's dirty rubbish. It's all dirty rubbish.

What do you think about all the help you are getting to move?

It's amazing. I've never had this much help in my life.

I've always been on my own since I lost contact with my family.

He knew that he had till today to move out and I think he saw

that place and thought, "How am I going to do it?"

But that's where we come into it, really.

You know, we are there to help.

Do you think circumstances, though, of life in general

-have made you very low... very depressed?

-Yeah.

-And that is why this place had got in such a state?

-Yeah.

I'm no expert, but...

My stuff, my personal belongings and things like that were a mess,

because, yeah, when I'm feeling down,

I haven't got the motivation to do anything.

I mean, I wasn't even eating properly, so...

You're starting fresh tonight.

And as I say, me and Dave don't want to be like Kim and Aggie

coming round, checking up on you.

But we shouldn't have to, really.

I think your fresh start, I reckon you could...

Things are on the up for you now. For you and Riley.

It's a new start for Anne. Local people are now being recruited,

and despite being able to claim sickness benefits,

Anne has decided to go back to work.

I was here, like, seven years ago and I filled an application form in,

got my job back, and now it's my 8th year here again now.

So, loving it!

At the end of the day, the work that's round at the moment

is seasonal work, and I know I have to come off for a few weeks

and telling us not to have any benefits is absolutely annoying.

I've just seen myself.

It's terrible, but now, as you see now, I'm happy as Larry!

So, yeah, fine now.

In the last 12 months, Sarah and Dave have delivered

over 2,000 food parcels to families and individuals living in Rhyl.

It's work they vow to keep on doing.

The only thing I think to myself when I see this, how fortunate am I?

And, you know, sometimes I whinge

if I haven't got Heinz baked beans in the cupboard... And I think,

"Pull yourself together, woman, you've got beans in the cupboard."

You know, these people have got nothing.

By giving them food, it actually gives us an access

to be able to go to these people and say, "Look, there is help."

I'd like a few MPs to come out with me and come and see

what I have to face. Have a look at the flats that have got damp walls

and mushrooms growing on them and water leaking in.

You just see flat doors you don't know what's behind those doors.

You don't know what kind of lives they're living

until you actually get invited behind those doors

when we deliver a food parcel.

And you're right, you take it home with you.

And you think, you know, these poor people.