Food bank demand growing as 'people struggling to survive after benefit cuts'

There has been a fishing fleet in Hastings for more than one thousand years.

Paul Joy is in good spirits as his boat is winched ashore. This morning's catch has been good, he's landing four crates of cuttle-fish

Paul is passionate about sustainable fishing and passionately opposed to the EU's fishing quotas. Last June he voted to leave the EU, as did Hastings.

The squeeze on living standards that Britain is now experiencing is, in large part, due the slide in the pound following the referendum but Paul has no regrets.

"The weak pound is good for my business, 80% of my fish is exported to France and Spain," he told ITV News.

Elsewhere in Hastings and rising prices are causing hardship. On the Downs Farm estate some people are struggling to feed themselves.

Both Suzy Lawrence-Strachan and her husband are both in-work but feeling poorer.

In her spare time Suzy volunteers at a local food bank where she helps distribute supermarket produce that is past its sell-by date.

"We deliver to about 60 homes every week" she told me. "Demand is growing.

"We've got one man on the estate who has two kids. His in-work benefits have been cut and he's got £66 a month to live on when all his bills have been paid. No one can survive on that".

The headline annual rate of inflation reached 2.7% in April, average pay is rising at 2.2% a year, as a result many household are seeing disposable income fall.

The Bank of England predicts that the fall in living standards will be short-lived and less severe than the one Britain experienced a few years ago during the recession.

But the Resolution Foundation believes that for up to eight million of Britain's poorest households the squeeze will be far worse.

The think-tank calculates that as inflation rises the welfare cuts that George Osborne announce two years ago will bite harder.

Interestingly the Labour manifesto, published today, suggests that even if the party were to form the next government the impact of the benefits freeze and less generous in-work tax allowances would only partially be reversed.