Significant Increase in Officers Using Food Vouchers

THERE has been a “significant increase” in the number of officers requesting financial support from the Welfare Fund, Hampshire Police Federation has said.

Chair Zoë Wakefield was speaking as Gloucestershire Police Federation said they were handing out hundreds of food vouchers to officers who were struggling to make ends meet.

Zoë said: “We’ve had a significant increase in requests for financial support to our Welfare Fund with officers struggling to cope. It comes down to pay, because if officers were paid more then they would be able to cope when things like food and petrol go up.

“But because so many officers don’t have enough money to get by, they rely on working overtime to make ends meet, so when suddenly food prices shoot up, energy bills shoot up, petrol shoots up, they then suddenly find they can’t cope.

“We should never have even got to the point where officers are having to rely on overtime to make ends meet because overtime’s obviously not guaranteed. But that’s the case for many officers.”

She added: “I know there are lots of sections of the public who are also struggling, but our pay rises have nowhere near kept in line with inflation. That’s all we’re asking for. We’re not asking for the moon.”