ONE in seven people across Britain faced hunger last year amid plummeting take-home pay, with ethnic minorities, disabled people and carers the hardest hit, shocking new research reveals.

A whopping 11.3 million people were thought to have been affected in 2022, the Trussell Trust survey shows.

The organisation, which runs more than 1,200 foodbanks across the country, described its findings as “just the tip of the iceberg.”

In further signs that the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades in wreaking havoc nationwide, new figures published today suggest that the number of homeless people in London has risen by more than fifth in the past year.

A total of 10,053 people were seen sleeping on the streets between April 2022 and March 2023, according to the Combined Homelessness and Information Network. 

The damning figure, described as a “tragic reflection” of both rising prices and a lack of affordable housing by homeless charity Crisis, is up 21 per cent on the previous 12 months. 

And separate research in Scotland reveals that while housing benefit has remained frozen since 2020, rents have skyrocketed, with only one in 20 private rental properties advertised by Zoopla now cheap enough to be covered. 

The study, conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, shows Tory austerity is pricing Scots out of housing, the SNP charged. 

Trussell Trust chief executive Emma Revie said: “Millions more people are struggling with hunger.

“This is not right. Foodbanks are not the answer when people are going without the essentials in one of the world’s richest economies.”

The charity warned that the most vulnerable are suffering the most, with three-quarters of those referred to its foodbanks network saying they or a member of their household is disabled.

About a quarter were unpaid carers, from an ethnic minority background or LGBT. 

It repeated calls for ministers to introduce an “essentials guarantee” by changing legislation to ensure the basic rate of universal credit is always enough to cover food and pay utility bills. 

Crisis boss Matt Downie stressed the rise in homelessness should “serve as a wake-up call for the government which frankly has no hope” of hitting its target to end rough sleeping.

“We need the government to urgently invest in housing benefit, deliver the genuinely affordable homes we desperately need and fund homelessness support services.”