A CHARITY is calling on the Government to lift a ban that they say prevents many people getting access to the help they need.

The Trussell Trust, which runs a foodbank in Salisbury, said a ban on job centre staff giving out vouchers on their behalf can mean people in desperate need might not be aware help is there for them.

Mark Ward, Salisbury foodbank manager, said: “It’s the effect on the people who need it. They’re already at the end of their tether and the last thing they need is an extra layer of red tape. They are being put under even more stress before they get the help they need.”

The trust relies upon frontline professionals, such as social workers and doctors, to give vouchers to people they encounter who do not have enough money to feed themselves.

Until 2008 they also had locally-negotiated agreements with job centres to distribute foodbank vouchers where needed but in December 2008 the Government ruled that job centre staff must not “act as an agent for handing out any form of support, such as food vouchers” on behalf of charities.

Ministers were concerned that the trust’s food parcels would give the impression welfare payments were insufficient and also that the scheme would unfairly benefit people living near foodbanks, of which there were only about 20 across the country at the time.

Now the trust has written to the secretary of state for work and pensions Iain Duncan Smith asking him to consider changing this ruling.

Mr Ward said foodbanks, of which the trust runs 66 across the country, are absolutely vital and for some they are the only thing preventing them from turning to crime to feed themselves.

Between April 2009 and March 2010, the foodbank in Salisbury, which relies on donations from the community, helped 3,261 people and Mr Ward thinks as the problems with the economy continue and people face job and benefit cuts, more and more people will be forced to rely on foodbanks.

The Government announced recently that everyone on incapacity benefit will have to go through tests to see if they are fit for work and the Department of Work and Pensions estimates that of the 1.5 million people currently on incapacity benefit 750,000 will move on to jobseeker’s allowance, 300,000 will move on to other benefits and 450,000 will come off benefits entirely.

Mr Ward said this will lead to an increased need for foodbanks as when people’s benefit changes there is always a delay. “It doesn’t seamlessly go from one to the other and in the majority of cases the benefit is stopped for a period when they review it so there’s always going to be a delay and now more people are affected.”