2025/04/11 by Rachel Loopstra, Ben Baumberg Geiger, Aaron Reeves · 1 citation
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Agriculture #Business #Economics #Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations #Food insecurity #Food security #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics #Geography #Public economics #Social Issues and Policies #Tax credit
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0047279425000091
published in Journal of Social Policy 55(2), 405-422 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2025/04/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract This paper evaluates the UK Government’s decision to increase the main form of social security by £20 per week during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, exploring whether increasing the generosity of social security for some, but not all, claimants affected food insecurity. Using the Family Resources Survey, we found a decline of about 7 percentage points in food insecurity amongst benefit claimants affected by the uplift compared with claimants not affected (95% CI −13.9 to −0.9%). This association did not change substantively following adjustment for covariates, nor when the model was re-estimated using matching methods. Results were not driven by changes in the composition of claimants over time. These analyses suggest food insecurity could be reduced if the generosity of the social security system increased. In actuality, the UK government went in the opposite direction, removing the £20 uplift in October 2021, potentially exposing claimants to higher rates of food insecurity again.