UK Military ‘Incredibly Angry’ to Use Food Banks as Cost of Living Crisis Bites - Report

The cost of living crisis continues to ride roughshod over the UK economy amid reports that the country’s inflation remains in double digits and near its highest levels in 40 years.

Some UK military personnel and their families have been turning to food banks due to fallout from the cost of living crisis, a British news network has reported.

The media outlet cited unnamed defense sources as saying that an unofficial food bank even exists at a massive Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Lincolnshire.

The facility was earlier set up to collect food donations from servicemen and women to support civilians in their local community. Currently, however, the Lincolnshire food bank is reportedly being “extensively” used by RAF personnel too, according to the sources.

The insiders claimed that the wider impact of the cost of living crisis leads to a number of RAF servicemen being forced to choose between "food or fuel", with some unable to afford to drive home from their base to see family.

Also, the number of enquiries to key charity activities from or on behalf of RAF personnel seeking financial support has reportedly more than doubled. On top of that, the sources argued, there are individuals who can no longer even afford the price of the subsidized meals at their mess-halls.

Apart from the RAF, Royal Navy and Army servicemen has also been affected even though the Ministry of Defense tried to shore up the personnel.

"But I suspect more needs to be done. I'm hearing ... stories of sailors unable to head home at weekends or over leave periods due to travel costs, also service personnel using food banks or contacting service charities for assistance with debt management," one source said.

When asked how the personnel felt about this, the insider said, “Incredibly angry and frustrated that we had got to the point where service personnel had to rely on charitable agencies just to exist."

The remarks come after Sarah Atherton MP, a British army veteran and member of the Commons Defense Select Committee, told the UK media outlet that the government should give the military a 10% pay rise in line with inflation.

"We've never had such an unstable global security situation, and we need our Armed Forces to protect us when we want them to protect us. We need to make sure they are valued and they feel valued," she said.

This unfolds against the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in the UK, which started in 2021 when prices for many basic necessities began to rise faster than household incomes, causing real incomes to plummet.

Apart from soaring inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic and the West's sanctions slapped on Russia over its special military operation in Ukraine were among the major factors behind the worsening economic conditions in Britain.

The annual rate of inflation in Britain reached 11.1% in October 2022, a 41-year high, before dropping in subsequent months but still remaining in the double digits.