A safety-net designed to ensure the very poorest people in the UK are able to meet basic needs is failing thousands of them, according Church Action on Poverty.

The Manchester-based charity's report published this morning, Compassion in Crisis, highlights the failures of the Local Welfare Assistance Scheme (LWAS) set up in 2013 to replace the central Social Fund. Local authorities were given funding to set up their own schemes to provide emergency grants and loans, but this was sharply cut between 2011 and 2014.

CAP's research has found steep declines in the local schemes, forcing more people to use foodbanks and other charitable responses. 

Over the past five years, the charity says, at least 28 local authorities have closed their schemes completely and almost all the remaining schemes have been drastically cut back. In total, the amount spent on Local Welfare Assistance by councils who responded to Freedom of Information requests has been cut by 72.5 per cent since 2013–14.

CAP says: 'The Local Welfare system has become so fragmented and threadbare that thousands of people are now left struggling to stay afloat in times of need and people's ability to access emergency support during times of crisis depends on where they happen to live.

'People who need crisis support and cannot access it are at increased risk of hunger, debt and destitution. As a compassionate society, we need to ensure the system can prevent people being swept further into difficulty.'

CAP's report calls for 'robust, well-funded support' to be put in place for people in crisis. 'It cannot be right that local authorities are free to close Local Welfare support entirely and to leave people adrift in times of greatest hardship,' it says.