Archbishop Justin Welby voices concern at people in work using foodbanks

Justin Welby said the majority of visitors to foodbanks were in work, as he reiterated his calls for more to be done to tackle poverty.

There has been growing concern around so-called in-work poverty, with research suggesting more than five million working people in the UK are earning below the real living wage.

Asked about the economy, the Archbishop told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: “It’s obviously producing very good jobs, there’s a lot of jobs at the moment, there’s low unemployment, there’s good news.

“But the thing we see in the Church of England, and with the other churches, all the other churches together, is that at our foodbanks now the majority of people who come to the foodbanks are in work.

“That is a sign that work is not lifting people out of poverty in the way that we would hope in a society that is just.”

He went on to call for investment in areas such as skills and apprenticeships.