Britain’s poorest risk malnutrition

Recent government figures have shown Britain’s poorest 10 percent are at risk of malnutrition because of rising food prices, Press TV reports.

In 2013, the poorest tenth – some 6.4 million people – of the population spent 20 percent more on food than in 2007, but received 7 percent less in return, the British government’s Family Food report shows.

“This report confirms what people have long thought. We have seen a real collapse in living standards in this country, near 20 percent since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. The majority of people are actually in work, one of the parents is in work. They cannot afford to eat,” said, Chris Bambery, a political analyst.

The figures show that large numbers of poor Britons may be consuming less calories than they require to maintain full body weight.

The said group consumed an average of 1,997 calories a day in 2013, instead of the average guideline figure of around 2,080 calories.

“The reports which are accompanying all this indicate particularly single parents in work struggling to feed their kids and they themselves going without food in order to put food in their children’s plates. And it’s a million miles away from the reality of someone like David Cameron (British Prime Minister) or George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer) who are never going to worry about having to feed their children,” Bambery said.

The report is obtained by annually surveying 6,000 households.