Staffordshire poverty expert warns Stoke has entered a poverty crisis

A Staffordshire poverty expert says that the number people in Stoke-on-Trent who've now fallen into 'absolute poverty' should be a national concern.

Recent analysis by fuel poverty charity National Energy Action shows that Stoke-on-Trent has the greatest proportion of households living in fuel poverty at 24.7%, replacing Birmingham at the top spot.

The analysis looked at data from around two years back, though austerity and welfare expert, Professor David Etherington from University of Staffordshire labels the current situation in Stoke-on-Trent as a humanitarian crisis.

"We're not heading towards a humanitarian crisis, we're in it now." David told Hits Radio News.

"It's got worse because of the cost of living crisis. The increase of people using the food banks has been about 5000% in the last ten years or so. Basically, Universal Credit doesn't give enough money for people to live on.

"The whole welfare system needs rebooting.

"The food banks are normalised. So Sir Keir, here's your target. You establish a whole set of policies where you get rid and don't need to food banks anymore. And upgrade the amount of money people get when they're on Universal Credit. When you look at the statistics, almost 40% of claimants of Universal Credit are in work."

The government has said they're determined to tackle and drive down poverty, and that they have invested in the Household Support Fund as well as lead a child poverty taskforce.

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