A law firm in Batley will be supporting a local food bank amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Batley Law will work with Batley Food Bank for the next twelve months, donating food given by staff, translators, and third-party individuals every month to help those hardest hit in the community.
Batley Law, which was founded by managing director Waseem Nazir in 2018, is a specialist firm focusing on immigration, asylum and nationality law, with a 98% success rate in dealing with spousal visa cases.
The law firm will donate items to the food bank once a month and will host fundraising events – charity walks and coffee mornings, to raise much-needed funds for the charity.
Last year, the charity raised money for people in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in the country last summer as well as raising money for the Disasters Emergency Committee.
The founder and managing director of Batley law, Waseem Nazir, said: “We are a law firm that was established in 2018 that focuses on representing refugees, asylum seekers and victims of domestic abuse, holding a legal aid contract to be able to do this work.
“At the beginning of my legal career, I used to volunteer at my local Citizens Advice Bureau, which was at the time, next door to the food bank which is how I saw first-hand the impact it made on people’s lives.”
According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), 87% of adults in the UK reported an increase in the cost of living in April 2022. The Resolution Foundation estimates an extra 1.3 million people will fall into absolute poverty in 2023, including 500,000 children due to the increase in bills, inflation, food costs and the rise in national insurance.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has found that the cost of food and drink has gone by 6.7% resulting in 39% of adults cutting back on their weekly food shop to be able to afford to put meals on the table.
Michael Lewis, the top boss at utility provider E.On warned on Sunday that 40% of Britons will face fuel poverty as one in eight people are already in arrears on their accounts, even before when the weather turns colder and a higher energy cap which is expected to come into force in October.
Energy regulator Ofgem lifted the price cap on gas and electricity bills in April, adding around £700 to the average household energy bill to take it to £1,971.
For the 4.5 million people on pre-payment meters – which are typically used by people on lower incomes – the price of energy has now risen further, by an average of £708, to £2,017 a year.
Due to the rising cost of wholesale gas, however, the price cap is expected to increase and take the typical energy bill to as much as £2,800, if not higher.
Mr Nazir, added: “The main motivation for choosing the food bank as our partner charity is the cost-of-living crisis that many people are living through, at the moment. We can see the difficulties our clients are experiencing, and I thought it was the right time to support them.
“Batley Food Bank assists people in the immediate area and potentially may help people such as our clients who are asylum seekers whose support hasn’t been organised and are destitute and have nowhere to go. For these people, especially those with children, food banks are a lifeline.”
Claire Jennings, manager at Batley Food Bank, said: “We really appreciate the support Wazeem Nazir and the team at Batley Law have given us. The food they donate will be distributed to people in need in the community and the money generated will be used to purchase stock items which will be given out.”
