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Charity food banks in Britain are “preparing for the worst” as the government starts winding up emergency aid measures put in place to cushion the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on millions of workers and low-income households, Reuters reports.
An extra weekly payment of £20 (US$27) to support the country’s poorest families will be cut next month, and more than a million workers face an uncertain future as Britain becomes the first big economy to halt its Covid jobs support scheme.
Food banks, which hand out staple goods from dried pasta to baby food, are especially concerned about the loss of the top-up to the Universal Credit (UC) benefit, which is claimed by almost 6 million people, according to official statistics.
The British move comes as other countries start wrapping up state aid programmes announced last year as Covid battered the global economy.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage.
Britain’s charity food banks are “preparing for the worst”, Reuters reports, as the government starts winding up emergency aid measures put in place to cushion the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on millions of workers and low-income households.
