The former Prime Minister and one of the founders of The Multibank visited Felix’s Multibank to be interviewed by various media about child poverty and how to combat it. The event coincided with Mr. Brown releasing his own report; The Child Poverty Emergency: Reversing the Downward Spiral.
In the report and his interviews Mr. Brown spoke about his grave concerns over the tragic number of children in the UK, now 4.5 million, trapped in poverty. He also highlighted the work of The Multibank network across the country providing much needed essentials, such as toiletries, bedding, clothes and household goods, to families and individuals living in poverty. In London, Felix’s Multibank has already supported almost 100,000 people and given out over 2.6 million items that might otherwise have gone to waste.
Mr. Brown spoke about his submission to the government’s Child Poverty Taskforce, in which he calls for better wages, benefit reforms and ending the two-child benefit limit. He also made several fiscal change suggestions, which he believes could raise £9bn. These are a levy on online gambling profits, ending the interest paid to banks on reserves held at the Bank of England and the introduction of social investment bonds.
The former Prime Minister & Chancellor was interviewed by Sky News, BBC News, ITV’s Robert Peston and The New Statesmen, which he has guest edited this week and focusses on issues and solutions to what he calls a national “child poverty emergency.”
Mr. Brown showed the media around the site before sitting down to talk about his report.
Mr. Brown said: “It’s a sad fact that child poverty is rising too fast, and with it the dependence on foodbanks and Multibanks because people cannot afford to buy the basics. The Felix Project’s recent survey found 84% of the services they provide food to are expecting to see a rise in demand in the next 12 months. Charities like Felix and all those working hard to provide food and goods to people in need have increasingly been relied upon as the “fourth emergency service” and the number of these places across the country keeps going up.
“What we are proposing in The Child Poverty Emergency report is evidence-based solutions for the government’s Child Poverty Taskforce which could be the basis for a Child Fairness Guarantee. In essence an anti-poverty lock to protect children and ensure no family who are doing the right things are trapped in poverty all this without breaking any manifesto commitments or fiscal rules.
“I’m grateful to Felix’s Multibank for all its sustainable work and for letting me showcase to the media what Multibanks are doing. I welcome their work to rescue and redistribute household products from businesses at scale, and to support families on tight budgets.”
